Bad Wolf:  Phantom Agents
by Amazing Bluie
Summary: Danny, Sam, and Tucker find themselves as agents of the Bad Wolf, at Clockwork's behest, fixing the multiverse as they travel to a multitude of worlds.  Every chapter is a different crossover, including DC, Marvel, Narnia, SG-1, Due South, and many more!
1. Prologue

Disclaimer: I own nothing of any show, book, or movie that is mentioned or taken from.

Author's Note: Don't worry about the odd format of the prologue. This is the only chapter from the Bad Wolf's point of view. Please note this prologue takes place at the end of the first season of Doctor Who.

**

* * *

BAD WOLF**

Phantom Agents

A few seconds. A bump in the road. This is how my world ends.

This is how I die.

I couldn't save him. I couldn't save him, and he couldn't save me.

I ran for him. Through time and space, I ran for him. I engulfed eternity, and it engulfed me, and I ran to save him. My Doctor.

I tripped. A bump that was not supposed to be. It came and it left in a blink, and then it never was. I arrived, to find that 3.47 seconds had changed everything. They had killed him. They had shot him down, like they never were supposed to. He stood with death at his feet, and they killed him. He was the destroyer, and he now is destroyed.

I watch as they come for me, crawling through space as they crawled through time. They are so small. They do not understand what I am. I should not exist. I create myself, sending the message through time and space to guide me. An eternal loop completes.

I burn inside, the fire engulfing me. I look into them and see every atom of their existence, and I divide them. The soldiers fall, and their master falls with them. The false god is no more. From particles to particles. From dust to dust.

But in rage I seek further, vengeance guiding me beyond diluted space and time, through realities. The anomalies are open to me like no other, and I see them. I unbind them from existence, for their kind stole me away. Stole my Doctor away. They scream as they vanish, knowing that they never were. For I have seen them.

A few seconds. All of space and time, and those tiny measurements of past changed everything, all of the history that never will be. Without my Doctor to save me, I save myself. I remold my body and burn it. With fire and time.

I bring life. I save them, the captain and my Doctor. I wish for what was, but when I see him, my Doctor, and his ancient eye resting on me in sadness, I know I am no longer. I am the flower no more. Once delicate, flowing with the wind, I am reborn. I am death. I bring life, but I am death. I am vengeance and death, and for that I am abominable. I do not belong.

Slowly I feel it. The multiverse. Its vastness, its depths. Its implicit complexity, and none can withstand it. I touch upon infinite minds, never ending. A River awakens, and then the multiverse screams.

It calls for help, writhing in turmoil. Small clots that threaten the bloodstream; so simple, so intricate, so pure. I wish to help it, but I cannot involve myself, for I am anger and rage. I am devastation. I am death.

I am the Bad Wolf.

And I must find a caretaker. A defender. A protector.

A hero.

Someone calls to me, for he knows I will call to him. I call to him, for I knew he would call to me.

Clockwork.

* * *

A/N: Hello, any readers! I'm brand new to writing, so I hope you enjoy what I've got for you! I've been editing stories for awhile and recently decided I wanted make some of my own. I'm a fan of a lot of different shows, books, movies, and decided to make a big, massive crossover involving around 20 various fictional universes. Don't worry, it won't be all at once. That'd be a bit _too_ crazy. I'm saving that for the sequel. -)

Anyways, I hope to post each chapter on the first of every month, so I should be fairly consistent. I am, of course, in college, so you'll have to keep in mind that school comes first. Each chapter is focused on a different fandom, of which Danny Phantom is the only one that is in all chapters. It was the DP fandom that got me involved in fan fiction in the first place, a few years ago, so I gave its main characters the honor of visiting tons of other well-loved worlds.

Please review, and tell me how I'm doing! This is one of my first posted stories EVER! Any comments and criticisms are welcome, just try not to flame.

I hope you enjoy the journey!

P.S. Also, tell me how I do on the story and characterization of each fandom. I place a high value on having a story that feels as much like it could've been a part of canon as possible, regardless of the obvious crossover related events that are unlikely to have occurred.


	2. Danny Phantom

"I won't let you win! You'll have to go through me to take over this town!" The determined hero fired another volley of energy blasts at his sinister foe.

An orange glow sprang up in front of the shots, forcing them to dissipate into nothingness as they hit. A villainous chuckle rang through the air. "You don't have a choice! With my new energy stabilizer, and once I find the last Klytoraque crystal, I shall recreate the chaos transdimensionalizer and become the supreme ruler of all!"

"Uh, Tucker, you're starting to sound like Technus again..." Danny leaned back in his chair, massaging his hands and regretting his promise not to go ghost and phase into the game. It would make it so much easier to pound Tucker's character into the ground. "You're kind of starting to worry me when you get so into these games."

"Hey, some of us don't exactly have ghost powers to release our energy with. I've got to let it out somewhere, don't I?"

Danny frowned at his friend's response, narrowly avoiding the accompanying disintegrator beam. "You help plenty in ghost fights. Just last week you took out Skulker by yourself!"

Tucker's online villain, Bad Luck Tuck, was doing battle with Danny's online hero and just found a hidden gem, leveling up. "That was last _month_, Danny, and all I did was wirelessly link to Skulker's onboard navigation and upload the newest PurpleBackGorilla upgrade. It's the same stuff we've been doing for the past two years! That doesn't exactly qualify as help."

"Well, I can't do it. And if you hadn't, I would have missed English _again_ to come down there and fight him. Maybe even History, too. Again."

"So what? It's not like you're secretly Danny Phantom anymore. All the teachers love to excuse you from class to deal with a ghost."

"Not all."

Danny could almost hear Tucker grimace. "Right, Testlaff. But she teaches gym; does anybody _really_ care about gym. Except Dash and the rest of the football team, of course..."

Danny shook his head, despite his friend not being able to see. "Lancer's excitement has died down. He's already on my back to get more of my reports turned in."

Suddenly, Tucker found what he'd been looking for as he threw Danny's character through a museum. "Yes! Ha, eat that ghost boy! I just got myself a chaos transdimensionalizer! Now, you're going..." Suddenly Tucker's screen flashed red and a Game Over sign appeared.

"What? How'd you do that?"

Danny stared at the game for a moment, before a smile grew and he chuckled. "Wasn't me."

"Well, then who..."

_Plant Manson has gained the Klytoraque crystal. Plant Manson has won an energy stabilizer._

_Plant Manson has joined chat. _"Hey, Tucker, looks like I've got all I need to make the chaos transdimensionalizer first. I believe that's a twenty you owe me?"

Danny snickered at her declaration. "I thought you'd learned your lesson about underestimating Sam's game skills, Tuck?"

He heard Tucker grumble through the speaker, "I thought you were supposed to be at some fancy party all day, Sam."

Danny laughed. "You tried to_ cheat _Sam?"

"I _was_ supposed to be at a party, _thank_ you for taking advantage of that, Tucker, but I suddenly contracted a ghost related disease that required me to be absolutely still in bed. And if anyone asks, yes, you_ have _heard of spectriffleton's disease and it is _highly_ contagious." She gave an obviously fake cough for emphasis.

Danny laughed as he went to respond, only to feel a sudden gasp of frozen air escaping his lungs. He groaned, "Sorry, guys, ghost sense is going off."

"Ugh. Need any help?"

Danny shook his head, despite Sam not being able to see the response. "No, I've got it. Meet me at the Nasty Burger, same as usual."

Tucker's questioning reply sounded well-rehearsed, "Get backup if you're more than ten minutes late?"

As Danny got up and stretched, giving a quick "Yep, see you there!" before going ghost. After his jet black hair turned snow white, his blue eyes turned a bright, glowing green, and his normal clothes switched into a black and white HAZMAT suit, Danny flew into the air, diving straight up through the ceiling.

After reaching the open air and hovering for a few minutes in the sky, Danny saw the ghostly intruder. He then promptly slapped himself in the face, before muttering, "Box Ghost."

Indeed, the ghostly entity that had caused him to get off his comfortable chair and interrupted yet another chat with Sam and Tucker was none other than everybody's favorite punching bag, the Box Ghost.

The "all-things-cardboard-and-square" obsessed spirit looked around with a very confused expression on his face until he spotted Danny. He flew a little higher and shouted, "Aha! I am the Box Ghost, and I do not understand how I came to be here! Are you, human-ghost hybrid, responsible for misplacing my previous location?"

Danny raised an eyebrow. "I have _no_ idea what you're talking about." Then he smiled and said, "Nor do I care. I'm just going to dump you back in the ghost zone and go eat lunch with my friends." As he said this, he calmly and slowly pulled out his ghost catching device, the Fenton Thermos, and started unscrewing the cap.

The Box Ghost watched this and cried out, "You would dare use your infernal devi- uh, why are you moving so slowly?"

Danny shrugged. "It's not like we haven't been doing this almost every day for the past two years. I know how fast you go, you can't beat my time." He finished unscrewing it.

The Box Ghost blinked and then shouted "Beware!" before flying away as fast as he could. Which wasn't fast enough.

Danny shook his head and chased after him. '_I'll get to the Nasty Burger a little earlier than usual,'_ he thought.

As Danny neared the crate creep, however, he was shocked at a sudden burst of speed that propelled his quarry further on. Danny increased his own speed to catch up, and nearly hit his limit. The Box Ghost had never moved this fast before!

The two ghosts flew through town, twisting and turning as they went back and forth at high speeds, flying between buildings, trees, and a pink and green hot air balloon. It was strangely out of place, carrying a small boy wearing a pink hat, and seemed to have faces plastered on the side. Danny almost slowed down for a better look, but shrugged it off. Boxy was oddly fast today, and the town hero couldn't afford to let him get away.

The chase was fairly quick, but it seemed to Danny like it lasted hours. Suddenly, the Box Ghost slowed considerably and seemed unable to control a strange, rapid descent towards the ground. It took a moment for the pursuing hybrid to realize the specter was somehow falling. As Danny stopped and looked, he noticed the Box Ghost was about to crash into Sam and Tucker, calmly heading to the Nasty Burger on their motorized scooters.

Danny activated the Fenton Phone attached to his left ear. "Sam, Tucker, you've got incoming. The Box Ghost's dropping down on you, and something's weird with him. Duck!"

The ghost boy's two friends got the message and ducked just as the Box Ghost nearly collided directly with Sam's head. The ghost corrected his course before flying ahead and into an alley.

Tucker and Sam got back up and shot off on their scooter in hot pursuit, with Danny quickly catching up to them. However, when they turned into the alley, the Box Ghost was nowhere in sight. And a moment later, neither were they.

* * *

Deep in the depths of the Ghost Zone, on the flip-side of this earth, is a quiet spot where few ghosts tread. In a clock tower, located throughout time in this place, is a ghost who is so very old. And then so very young.

A small child-like ghost known as Clockwork floated in front of his portals with his staff, monitoring time as he had done for so long, and not very long at all. He watched as his portals displayed scenes from Danny's life, watched as Sam convinced Danny to step into his parent's non-working ghost portal, watched as Danny met his archenemy, and watched as Danny met his ultimate enemy. More scenes flipped by, showing little Danielle, Valerie Grey, the incident where Danny altered time to save his friends, and his shining moment, when he stood in front of a crowd in the Antarctic after saving the world. Both worlds; human and ghost.

As the ghost of time sat there, silently observing his young charge, Clockwork's small form shifted into a larger one, aging into an adult in the span of a millisecond. His blank expression remained unchanged, however, and he whispered, "I have put you through many tests, Danny, with many reasons." He looked at one of his many clocks on the wall, before continuing with a rising voice, "For one of which, it...is...TIME!"

Upon Clockwork's command, both verbal and mental, the clocks around the room started going off with loud noises of various types. Clanging, banging, and bonging filled the room as he turned around and stared at the center of it.

Under his gaze, a bright light filled the room as a rift in more than even time and space opened, and universes were traversed by a young girl who wore time as her body. A deep, powerful glow radiated from her, most intensely from her eyes. Upon her arrival, all the noise in the clock tower abruptly froze.

Clockwork bowed to the newcomer like the gentleman he was. "Welcome to my home. I'm sorry for your loss."

The being in front of him bowed her head slightly, to return the gesture. "I come in need of assistance. The universes are calling to me because they hurt. I need help to heal their wounds."

Clockwork nodded. "I know exactly what you need. Or, should I say, whom."

The lady of time replied slowly, yet shortly. When two beings understand each other as well as they, many words are not necessary. And when time is at your command, there is no need to rush. "You offer me an assistant."

Clockwork smiled mysteriously. "Likely, more than one..." He turned around and the center, screen-like portals all changed to show Danny and his friends playing around a computer game.

The girl whose name once held the image of a flower gazed intensely at Danny. "I can sense him. Through time and space, I can sense him. The boy's destiny is great."

Clockwork smirked, satisfied with her appraisal. "And his friends will help lead him there." One of the screens showing Danny in a fight switched to the present location of the Box Ghost, happily terrorizing a warehouse janitor. Clockwork brought the hand not holding his staff to the button at its top. "But, occasionally, they need a small... push." At that, he pressed down the button and the Box Ghost found himself in front of Danny's home. A few moments later, the chase began as Danny flew after the Box Ghost. The small, box-obsessed spirit would not last long.

Clockwork smiled and bent time around the Box Ghost; just a fraction. Danny had a difficult time catching him and, with a little bit of help from Clockwork, the two ghosts found their way to Sam and Tucker. As they made their way to an alley, he took advantage of it and pulled the Box Ghost from the narrow gap. A moment later, the blue, overall-wearing specter found himself in his box-filled lair in the ghost zone. With that done, Clockwork pulled the three teens, leaving behind their scooters, into his own lair, off to the side of him and his other guest.

As the teens groaned from their literal trip, as it's hard to keep your balance going through a portal, Clockwork's special guest turned to him, confusion in her voice. "Their discomfort could have been spared had you simply pulled them to you separately. Why force more than necessary?"

Clockwork shifted into his elder form, with a thin, frail body and a long, white beard. "Allow an old ghost a little fun, will you?" He smiled with a twinkle in his eye. The impossible girl turned to regard the children once again, who were now standing in slightly defensive positions, unsure about this glowing stranger in front of them. She certainly wasn't a ghost, that much they could tell. At least, not like any other ghost they had ever seen.

"Clockwork?" Danny asked as he gathered his bearings. He turned back to the stranger, a blonde woman whose brightly shining eyes were unnerving. "Who are you?"

Clockwork replied for the lady of time, "Her name is unimportant at this moment, Danny. She needs your help."

The stranger spoke up, causing the three kids to quickly turn to her in amazement as her strange reverberations shook them to their core, "Reality is broken. Time and space need mending, I cannot do it all alone. I need help... _your_ help."

Sam, Tucker, and Danny all looked at each other, unsure of what to say or do. Clockwork clarified for them as to what was being asked, "The multiverse, Danny, is an infinitely sized collection of universes. Though it is common to break the wall between very similar universes to allow travel, our friend here would seem to be one of the few that can go further, into realities far different from our own. A newly acquired talent, if I'm not mistaken." The glowing girl nodded her head at this, and Clockwork continued, "She has detected breaks in between the universes, rifts that, left unchecked, could grow into problems that threaten all of reality. What she needs, is an assistant to help her mend the more subtle cracks." Clockwork's tone fell into a more dramatic note. "You are needed, Danny Phantom, to fix the multiverse."

"Whoa, hold on!" Sam had stepped forward, waving her arm in front of her. "You're asking Danny to travel into other realities? For how long?"

"Unknown. The wounds are everywhere, and more are growing. Years may be necessary to heal them, though time here can be adjusted so none will have passed on this world."

Tucker's eyes widened. "Years? Danny's not going anywhere without us for years!"

Her bright eyes focused on him, making Tucker slightly uncomfortable. "That is acceptable, but the road ahead is dangerous."

Tucker looked confused for a moment, before realizing what he'd said. "Uh... I didn't mean I wanted to go!"

Sam turned around and glared at him, whispering, "Danny's needed. And we're not going to let him go by himself." She returned her steadfast gaze on Clockwork's friend and crossed her arms. "When do we leave?"

Clockwork smiled. "I was hoping you'd say that. The answer... is immediately. But first, you will need more than just your ordinary tools for _this_ job."

* * *

A few minutes and a bit of debriefing later, the three teens were standing in front of a rift opened up to their first world in need. They were all a little on edge, but Tucker's nervousness was offset by his shiny, refitted-for-multiversal-travel PDA. The mystery girl had done some shiny light stuff to it, and it was now capable of opening rifts by itself. It even had a nice tracker for finding rift activity, but he was warned it might be difficult to work. Tucker didn't care, though, because he was picking up a radio station from the world they were headed to, with a fascinating song from a group he'd never heard of. He turned to Danny, "This thing rocks!"

Danny smiled nervously before turning back towards Clockwork's brightly glowing friend. "Okay, so quick recap. The multiverse is a connection of infinite universes, and something caused it to start breaking down. While you take on the big stuff and find out how it happened, we'll be trying to fix the small cracks that bleed through."

The powerful entity in front of him slowly nodded her head in confirmation.

Danny glanced back at the rift for a moment before refocusing on her. "We'll do our best, but I've still got a question. What do we call you?"

She was silent for a moment before she finally spoke, "I am the Bad Wolf."

And with that, Danny Fenton, Sam Manson, and Tucker Foley were suddenly yanked through the rift in front of them by some unseen force, blasting through impossible walls of reality to a new adventure.

_

* * *

Next Time, on Phantom Agents..._

"_In the midst of this crisis, I have great news! Kim Possible has just arrived on the scene, and the crowds are cheering!"_

_Ron pointed at the three, "Agh! Alien attack! Where are you from, and what do you want with our nacos?"_

"_If this tear between universes isn't fixed soon, it'll grow out of control! The whole world could be sucked inside and torn apart!"_

_Tucker frowned. "Is it just me, or is that a man in a skirt hitting golf balls into the rift?"_

"_Come, Junior. Soon the whole world will do my bidding!"_

"_You don't stand a chance against the intellectual genius of Professor Dementor!"_

"_Shego, attack!"_


	3. Kim Possible

_"Earlier today, reports indicated the appearance of a crack in the fabric of reality, hovering over this canyon in the Swiss Alps. Among the first news investigators on the site, we have Bob here to give us an early report on what some are calling the hole in the sky. Bob, what do you see?"_

The news channel switched to show a video feed with another reporter. He was standing on some kind of grassy plain, surrounded on one side by towering mountains with a bit of snow at the top, and the other by a far lower valley. It looked like a beautiful sunny day, though the reporter had a worried look on his face. "Well, Bill, we're not sure what this means, yet, but it's got all the world's top scientists stuck. Several world militaries are working in unison to keep anyone not qualified from coming within a mile of the researchers, who are kept several miles from the hole in the sky, but that's getting more and more difficult as the scientists and researchers call in more support."

Bill's voice was heard again, as the camera continued focusing on Bob. "Where exactly are you in relation to the rift in what some have called the fabric of reality, and others the time/space continuum?"

"Luckily, this mountain range you see behind me contains several plateaus, one of which is located mid-range and next to the side of the canyon where the tear is located. This is where everyone has gathered to keep an eye on the phenomenon in the sky, including scientists, reporters, and refreshment carts looking to earn a buck or two from the attention on the deadly swirl above. As you can see in the distance," the reporter pointed to an area behind him, letting the camera zoom in to catch a small glimpse of thin strings of dark and light twisting colors as they danced across the sky in a roughly oval-shaped pattern, "there is the crack in reality that is gathering so much attention. If you're wondering about how well you'll be able to see it from here, we'll be able to see a much larger version by the end of the day. Scientists have discovered evidence that it is growing, and the more troubling news is that it may not stop."

A figure in the background, at the edge of the researchers, stopped what he was working on and waved for the cameras excitedly, seeking attention. "Is that blue man behind you the mad scientist, Dr. Drakken? What's he doing there?"

"Well, that's what I was getting to, Bill. It appears the support ordered has increasingly grown more varied and anyone with a scientific background is being encouraged to come help out. If this...rift gets any worse, we may be looking at a worldwide crisis. It just doesn't look like there's much hope of..." A moment of silence occurred as Bob stared into the distance, squinting his eyes. The sound of a plane landing could be heard in the background.

"Bob? We seem to have lost you for a second."

Bob turned back to the camera, grinning widely. "Sorry, Bill, but I have great news. Kim Possible has just arrived on the scene, and the crowds are cheering!"

"Will she be of any help?"

"Are you kidding? With a rocket scientist and a brain surgeon as parents, years of saving lives, fighting crime, and even saving the world, _and_ her background as a head cheerleader? She's the girl who can do anything for crying out loud! And look! Here she comes!"

* * *

The side door of the private jet slowly opened, and out stepped the world-renowned Kim Possible. Pausing after the first step, she turned to lean back inside and wave, loudly saying, "Thanks for the ride, Mr. Winderman. And if you ever need help with a sinking yacht on fire and swarming with killer bees again, just call me or beep me when you want to reach me!"

Turning back around, Kim gave an exasperated sigh as camera flares started flashing in her face. Ron may love the publicity that comes with the job, but she was starting to get tired of it all. The young hero put a semi-polite smile on her face as she continued down the steps and onto the ground.

Behind her, Ron Stoppable followed, smiling and waving to the cameras. Not many reporters focused on him, with the great Kim Possible near, but he was used to that. Trying not to trip down the stairs... again, Ron quickly made his way to his partner and girlfriend.

As the cameras moved away from the plane, Yori silently slipped out, not caring to be seen much by the press. She had started helping out more with Kim and Ron's adventures, though she most frequently found herself as the babysitter for the Stoppable family. Someone with experience needed to see to the safety of baby Hana. Even with Monkey Fist gone, they could take no chances. Luckily, the Stoppables would be home all day, watching the news.

After Yori reached the ground, she moved out of the way as the newest version of the WadeBot rocketed out of the doorway and hovered to a landing at the base of the stairs. Zooming in on the phenomenon up in the sky several miles away, Wade whistled through the speakers, "Wow! It looks even more impressive in person!"

Suddenly, someone shrieked that the rift was getting bigger and drew everyone's attention to it as it fluctuated and grew a little. All the reporters who had been focused on Kim gave her some space as they went back to trying to get as close as they could to the hole in the sky. The cheerleader sighed in relief and turned to see Yori and the screen with Wade's face approaching. She smiled and started to suggest what they should do next.

Before she could, however, Kim found herself tensing at the unexpected sight of another tear opening up a few yards away. As she stared, Ron, Yori, and Wade turned to see what she was looking at. No one else saw three teenagers burst from the rip in the space/time continuum, landing in a heap on the ground in front of it as it collapsed behind them.

Ron screamed, "Agh! Alien attack!"

Kim ran forward, with the others trailing her. The "alien" teens were getting to their feet and brushing themselves off when she arrived. Standing there, staring at them as they focused their attention on her, Kim finally asked, "Who are you?"

Beside her, Ron caught up and shouted, "They're aliens!"

Kim threw her hands up in frustration. "Ron, they're not aliens!" Suddenly, she stopped and lowered her arms, looking unsure. "Are you?"

A dark haired, light skinned boy shook his head. "We're not aliens." On one side of him was an african american boy wearing a red beret, and on the other was a dark haired, light skinned girl dressed as a goth. The lead boy asked, "Who are you?"

"Kim Possible." Before she even finished saying it, Kim suddenly realized her tone made her name sound both obvious and important. The stupid media was starting to get to her about her heroics.

Oddly enough, the boy didn't recognize the name. "Who?" He did seem to get that she thought highly of herself, however. Kim mentally slapped herself in embarrassment.

Ron pointed at them and shouted again, "They ARE aliens!"

Turning back to her best friend and recent boyfriend, Kim scolded him. "Ron!"

"Come on, KP, no one from EARTH doesn't know who you are!" Ron pointed at them accusingly, "Where are you from, and what do you want with our nacos?"

Ron's pocket opened as his pet, a highly intelligent naked mole rat, ran out onto his shoulder. The rodent imitated Ron as he made a sound like "Yeah!"

Kim rolled her eyes. "Ignore Ron and Rufus." Turning to her boyfriend and team mascot, she sternly said, "I doubt they're interested in nacos."

The dark skinned boy with the red hat grabbed his stomach. "That depends. Are they related to food?"

Ron looked at him, intensely suspicious. "Yeah."

"Are they healthy?"

"No."

"Are they greasy and blood-clotting?"

"Yes."

Tucker grinned as he lifted his arms in victory. "Point me to them and I'm there!"

Sam grew frustrated at her friend, as usual. "Tucker, we've got work to do!"

Ron turned and pointed accusingly, "Taking over the world work?"

"RON!" Kim was getting tired of going around in circles.

Danny was feeling the same way, and stepped forward with his hands raised in peace. He was fairly good at projecting calm rationality. "Look, we're from a...uh, a..."

"An alternate universe," Sam provided.

Danny glanced at her before refocusing on their hosts in this other universe. "Yeah, an alternate universe, and we were sent here to fix that rift you've got up there."

Kim looked up at it for a moment, frowning. "What caused it?"

"We're not sure, but apparently rifts like these have been opening in lots of different universes. From what we can gather, all of our universes are part of something called the multiverse. We're trying to fix it while someone else figures out what went wrong."

Tucker stepped forward, putting thoughts of food to the side... for the moment. "Just out of curiosity, what did _you_ think caused it?"

Kim shrugged, "I thought the giant hole in the sky was another scientist experiment gone wrong."

Wade quickly added his two cents, "I figured it was a result from the secret stealth jet spotted near here. It had teleported away, conceivably ripping the fabric of reality."

Danny looked at the japanese girl with them as she spoke up. "Ancient Japan legend come to life."

Ron waved his finger in the air, determined to be heard. "And I still say it's a monkey conspiracy! They've gone multiversal!"

Kim just barely refrained from slapping her face. Or Ron's. "Ron, it's not monkeys!"

Danny blinked, then turned to indicate Tucker. "Well, if we can get access to the edge of the rift, we can figure out how to close it."

Not yet getting the message of what his tirade was doing to his girlfriend, Ron accusingly said, "Or use it to lead an invasion of monkeys!"

After holding her palm to her forehead in embarrassment for a moment, Kim saw something in the crowd that put a smile of relief on her face. "Hey, Ron! Is that someone taking advantage of this event by selling nacos?"

Ron froze and slowly turned towards the crowd. "Nacos? Sorry, KP, you and Yori can handle the monkey aliens. I haven't eaten since breakfast!"

Kim frowned. "An hour ago."

Ron shrugged and ran off.

Danny chuckled, "Thanks, we were..." He paused, looking around. "Where's Tucker?"

Sam pointed at the red beret in the crowd, right behind Ron. "Making a new friend. They had him at 'grease.'"

Danny slapped his forehead as Yori giggled. "Despite being from another universe, you are American, yes?"

He raised an eyebrow at her. "Yeah... How'd you know?"

Yori just giggled some more.

Kim ignored her and began moving towards the scientist... camp, for lack of a better word. "Well, if you guys think you can help, I'd better introduce you to the scientists."

The others followed her as Danny asked, "You know them personally?"

Kim shrugged. "My dad's one of them."

* * *

"Hey, Kimmicub!" Kim felt a tinge of embarrassment at the nickname, but smiled anyways. Her dad looked behind her at the two new kids following her. "Who're your friends? You know you're not allowed to bring anyone over here unless they can do something to help."

Danny smiled, "Oh, we're here to help. We'll need a bit of time to figure out how, but we've got a... uh, device that should shut the... tear down." He really needed to learn the proper names for everything. "Are you Kim's dad?"

The man nodded, and a voice behind the young group caused them to turn around. "And I'm Kim's mom. Pleasure to meet you." Danny saw a woman who looked very similar to Kim holding up a tray of refreshments. She smiled and politely asked, "And you are?"

Danny smiled and started to hold out his hand, before realizing her hands were full. He automatically adjusted his hand's course to rub the back of his neck. "Danny. Danny Fenton." Then he gestured to Sam, "And this is my friend, Sam Manson."

Mrs. Possible smiled. "Pleasure to meet you, Samantha."

Danny coughed while Sam's eyes darkened, just a bit. "Just Sam, thank you."

The older woman's smile faltered momentarily at the minor hostility hinted in the reaction to the name, but it went back to full width as she introduced herself. "Well, you may call me Mrs. Dr. Possible."

Kim's dad spoke up again, catching their attention. "And I'm Mr. Dr. Possible."

Danny and Sam turned to Kim. "Both of your parents are doctors?"

Kim smiled. "Mom's a brain surgeon and dad's a rocket scientist. I got all A's in school." She said it seriously, but with a hint of humor, being both flippant and proud of the fact.

Sam shook her head. "I can imagine."

Danny decided to get the conversation back on track. "So, is there any way we can make it up to the edge of the rift? We'll need to be next to it to do anything about it."

Mr. Dr. Possible grunted, looking up at the threatening event above. "If you wait long enough, that thing will grow to reach where you're standing. But by then, the strength of the pull coming from the center will be so great, you won't be able to get within a mile of the edge without being pulled in yourself. It's nowhere near as strong as a black hole, but in a few hours, this puppy will suck you up faster than a tornado in a paper factory."

Mrs. Dr. Possible spoke up, actually answering the question. "There shouldn't be much danger of being sucked in at the moment. But I'm not sure where you're going to get a vehicle that will hover at the edge of the tear without jerking too much to do any good."

Kim's eyes lit up and she snapped her fingers. "I think I might know the perfect thing, assuming I can get permission from its owner..."

* * *

"No." The answer was plain and simple.

Kim wasn't so easily swayed, however. "Oh, come on, Drakken! There's no point trying to rule the world if there's no world to rule!"

"Why do you think I'm here in the first place, Kimberly Anne?" Kim's hands fisted momentarily at his use of her name, but she forced them to relax. "I want to save the world so that I may rule it in safety. But I'm not turning over my hovercraft to some teenage punks who aren't even old enough to drive!"

Danny took offense to that. "Hey! I just turned sixteen!"

Kim and Drakken both ignored him, as Kim replied, "_I'll_ be the one driving... er, flying, your hovercraft. And I'll owe you a favor, as long as it has nothing to do with global domination." Then, thinking of a way to sweeten the deal, she said in an almost sing-song voice, "If you do this, your onboard sensors will get closer, more accurate recordings than anyone eeelse..."

Drakken bit his lower lip. "Hm, they would get pretty accurate readings, wouldn't they?" Taking another moment to consider, the evil genius, who still had yet to be tested for it, changed his mind. He handed her a small pamphlet, the instructions manual that he always had on him because he was still trying to find that cup holder. "All right. If you're driving and it gets sucked in, I'll at least be rid of you at last. You've got a deal."

Kim smiled sweetly as they started towards the nearby vehicle. "Thank you, Drew!"

Dr. Drakken grumbled as he went back to work on his calculations, only to cry out, "Darn it! I forgot to carry the one! Now I'll have to start all over! Again! Agh!"

* * *

After Danny and Sam circled Drakken's hovercraft a few times, appraising it, they joined Kim onboard. Yori and the WadeBot opted to stay behind for space concerns, as the vehicle was not very large. The current objective at the moment was not actually the rift, anyways. Right now, they needed Tucker. Or rather, his enhanced PDA that can shut down the rift.

As Kim started up the engine, having to crank it a few times, she turned to her guests. "So, I suppose you have hover technology all over the place in your world? It's fairly rare here."

Danny and Sam looked at each other before the former spoke up, "Actually, I think our worlds are a lot more similar that that. We're still fairly earthbound except for planes, helicopters, and rockets into space. You do have those, right?"

Kim nodded distractedly, getting the engine going and discreetly trying to read the instructions Drakken gave her. She didn't want it known that she was having trouble making out what exactly it was saying.

"But we do have our exceptions. Like a hover vehicle my parents invented, meant for exploring a dimension they discovered." Danny looked around him at the craft they were standing in. "As a matter of fact, this is sort of like the Specter Speeder, but a lot more open!"

Sam frowned, before pointing down and spinning her finger. "And circular." Putting her finger to her chin to think more thoroughly on it, she continued, "And smaller. And it can't hold nearly as many people, who almost have to stand up, anyways. And it doesn't come with all the extra gear."

"Okay, Sam, I get it!" Danny rolled his eyes. "I was referring to the hover technology, anyway. It sounds and feels the same."

Kim, however, was pondering over something Danny had said. "What about that other dimension your parents discovered?"

Danny froze, wondering what to say. He didn't want to lie, but he didn't necessarily want to mention his parents were the crackpot ghost hunters of his world. Even when ghosts were proven to exist, his dad's reputation for being... over enthusiastic kept them labeled as crackpots. It didn't help that their inventions looked absolutely ridiculous, such as a ghost-catching thermos or an eternally tangled fishing line. Or the Fenton Toaster, or the Ghost Gabber, or even the Booooomerang.

Luckily, Danny was saved from having to come up with an answer when the hovercraft unexpectedly jerked up into the air, throwing its passengers for a loop. "I thought you knew how to fly this thing?"

Kim looked at him in confusion. "When did I say that?"

* * *

"Mmm... these are delicious!" Tucker took another bite, spilling a little more onto his shirt. He could clean up later. "And you _invented_ these... Nacos?"

Ron smiled with pride. "Yep. I got paid for them and everything." Then his grin turned into a frown as he rubbed his chin in thought. "And then Drakken stole my money and used it to buy a super laser to bounce deadly rays off the moon and terrorize the world so it would surrender to him." Ron shrugged. "But he accidentally shot the laser itself, blowing it up. So, everything worked out in the end!"

Tucker raised an eyebrow. "Except that you lost all your money."

Ron blinked, having already forgotten. "Oh, riiight, there is that." Looking back at his new friend, Ron tossed an arm around his shoulder, apparently having accepted the naco loving alien. "You're all right, Mr. Monkey Alien. What planet did you say you were from again?"

"Earth," Tucker said slowly, finding it irritating that this kid would continuously stick to a story he'd made up. "And my name is Tucker. We came from an alternate Earth, almost identical to this one. Not another planet. And the only monkey infested planet I've seen was on the classic Charles Hester movie, World of the Apes."

"Never heard of it. It sounds like the _Attack of the Chimp Clones_ series, even though I never saw any of the sequels. Kim wouldn't let me." Ron looked upwards as he tried to remember why. "Something about how I couldn't handle myself when watching a movie about monkeys, calling the first one a disaster involving me, popcorn, spaghetti, five security guards, and a husher."

Tucker looked at him, confused. "You mean an usher?"

Ron shrugged. "You say tom-ay-to, I say ketchup."

Tucker blinked in confusion. Before he could question the sanity of his guide, however, they both felt a slight breeze coming from above. Looking up, he and Ron both saw their friends leaning over a hovercraft as Kim tried to figure out how to park without crushing anybody.

The girl who could do anything was piloting the odd vehicle extraordinarily well for her first time, unsurprisingly.

Ron scratched his head in confusion. "You stole Drakken's flying car thingy?"

Kim frowned at the accusation. "Ron, we borrowed it."

"Riiight, _borrowed,_" Ron used his fingers to do air quotes.

His girlfriend narrowed her eyes. "_With_ permission!"

Tucker rolled his eyes and climbed in, followed by Ron. There wasn't much room for them in the small craft, so Tucker, Danny, and Sam sat on the edges in the back while Kim and Ron sat on the only two seats. It was a bit of a bumpy ride any time a wind current came from the canyon nearby, and there wasn't anything to grab onto to hold them steady on the edge.

Ron looked back at his universe's guests and noticed that despite the danger, they didn't look at all scared. Maybe slightly nervous, but it was still odd. "Are you sure you don't want to squeeze in more? It's kinda dangerous to be sitting on the sides like that."

Sam shook her head. "We'll be fine."

Ron frowned. "You don't look scared at all. What are you guys, fearless?"

Sam smirked. "Nah, we just know we're in good hands."

At first, Ron thought she was talking about Kim, who was piloting. But even he, with his lack of attentiveness, noticed the look the goth girl gave her friend as she was saying it. _What does _that_ mean?_

Ignoring the other conversation, Danny leaned forward to talk to Kim. "He's right, though. You should probably drop Sam and me off at the scientist's camp before going up to the rift. Tuck will be just fine without us."

Ron stuck his arm up in the air. "I'm getting off before going near that thing, too!" When everybody turned to look at him thanks to his outburst, he chuckled nervously. "Uh, I mean I wouldn't want to leave you guys by yourselves... in a place you don't know. Heh."

Kim rolled her eyes, but said, "Probably for the best. We can pick up the WadeBot while we're there. Wade should be able to help Tucker speed the process along, whatever it is. The sooner we shut down that thing, the better."

Tucker shrugged, looking down at the ground below. "That's fine with me." It was silent for a few minutes as they neared the scientist camp, until Tucker suddenly frowned in confusion. "Is it just me, or is that a man in a skirt hitting golf balls into the rift?"

Everyone looked over the side, Kim doing so for only a moment so as not to endanger everyone by taking her eyes off the... sky. "Oh, that's just Duff Killigan, the world's deadliest golfer. Ignore him unless he starts monologuing," she finished with a shrug.

Sam, after looking closer, smacked Tucker on the side of the head. "And it's a kilt, not a skirt!"

As they reached the scientist camp, the hovercraft descended to the ground next to Kim's parents, Yori, and the WadeBot. Danny, Sam, and Ron hopped out and watched the WadeBot give a burst to the tiny jets underneath it's chassis, rocketing up into the tiny ship. Kim leaned over the console in front of her in the direction of her mom and dad and shouted, "We're going up to the edge of the rift. Can you keep on eye on them?"

After receiving affirmatives from her folks, the teen hero sat back and yanked on the control stick, blasting off towards the hole in the sky. Tucker screamed as the suddenly trigger-happy cheerleader speeded them off towards a portal leading to certain death. Or a world of chili fries, there really was no telling with these things.

Mrs. Dr. Possible smiled at their guests, saying, "Well, it looks like you'll have to stay in the scientist camp with us scientists, I guess. We really can't leave our posts until this crisis ends. You never know when you might need a brain surgeon."

Kim's dad lifted a finger as he looked through a microscope a few feet away, adding, "Or a rocket scientist." Looking back up and around him, he frowned. "Not that there aren't already plenty here."

He turned towards the kids watching him. "But, I'm sure nobody will mind you being here as long as you don't mention a lack of scientific background."

Danny rubbed his chin thoughtfully, saying "Well, my parents _are_ both scientists."

Mr. Dr. Possible looked surprised. "Really? What field?"

Danny suddenly looked nervous, casting a glance about every which way as he responded. "Uh... well... um... they specialize in... uh, unnatural... occurrences?"

Mr. Dr. Possible raised an eyebrow. "Oh, really?" It was a look and tone that pushed for better specification.

Danny looked down sheepishly. "Ghosts."

The older man smirked. "Yeah, I don't imagine that will help you stay in the area, either."

"Watch it! You nearly blew up my super sonic sonar solution! Keep your cell phone away from it, it's highly sensitive around the signal! And poodles, but I'm working on that!" Everyone turned to see the blue-skinned Drakken waving a fist at someone who was obviously already ignoring him.

Kim's dad frowned. "Then again..."

Sam rolled her eyes, not particularly caring who in regards to, and finished the conversation for Danny. "Don't worry, nobody will notice us. If there's anybody who knows how to be invisible it's Danny." She smirked at him, just for good measure.

Danny rolled his eyes, not being able to help the smile that came to his face.

* * *

As the hovercraft, filled with Kim, a machine, and an unknown person, flew away, a mysterious figure broke away from the scientist camp from which he had been blending in. As he made his way into the crowd unnoticed, the man pulled out a cell phone and dialed a number. He ignored Drakken's second shriek of frustration at the unknown cell signal nearby.

A heavily accented voice answered. "Yes?"

"It's me. There's been a development."

A moment of silence. Then the voice replied, "Me who? Is this agent blue? Is my schnitzel ready?"

Blinking in confusion, the spy answered, "Um, no, this is agent black... There's been a development with the tear."

"Oh, you're the agent I sent to get my dry-cleaning. Did they fix the tear?"

Frowning, the agent tried again. "No, I mean the rift. The tear in the sky. What every news station in the world is focused on?"

A moment of contemplative silence before, "Oh, yes! I remember! That was today? I thought we resolved that... Oh, no. Silly me! That was the sonic amplified trans-dimensional vortex I created. When Kim Possible stopped me yet again! We need to put a stop to her once and for all!"

Getting back on track, the agent pushed on. "Well, she's here now. And there's also some kid with a device that I overheard can control the the power of the rift."

His boss's voice sounded very pleased with that bit of news. "Oh! Very excellent! Soon, I shall have everything I need to take over the world! Ha-ha-ha-ha!"

* * *

Off in the distance, a mysterious helicopter made its way over the mountaintop. Inside sat two evil schemers bent on ruling the world and becoming a teen pop sensation. Senor Senior Senior was more interested in the former, while his son, Senor Senior Junior, was more interested in the latter.

Senior looked over to his only child. "So, Junior, are you ready to help me enact my dastardly plan for world domination?"

Junior adjusted the uncomfortable helmet on his head once more. "But Father, I don't understand what we are doing!"

"Son, do you remember that scientist's convention last month, when we stole that multilingual brainwave communicator?" At his son's slow nod, Senor Senior Senior continued, "I have implemented that technology into the flashing lights on the top of this helicopter, creating a way to send subliminal messages to the brain via eyesight."

"But Father, what about the blind people?"

The older man blinked. "I guess they'll just have to take their cue from the other people around them. Peer pressure is a powerful influence, you know." Senior shook his head. "The point is, every television in the world is receiving the video from those cameras down there, and they are all focused on the tear in the space/time continuum up here. We are also up here, and if we can get their attention focused on us for just a few minutes, the entire world will be under subconscious orders to follow me! Mwa-ha-ha-ha!"

Junior wagged his finger appreciatively towards his father. "I see you've been working on your villainous laugh again."

Senior put on a face of mock humility. "Oh, do you like it?"

Junior nodded. "Oh, yes. If Kim Possible could hear you now, she would be all shaking in her very fashionable shoes."

Before he could respond, Senior noticed something in the distance. "Well, well, well. It would appear our adversary is presenting us with a grand opportunity. She is parked right in front of the tear. Now all we have to do, is fly up a little close and fire this bazooka I happened to pack in the back." He patted a box behind him.

Senior looked back out the front and continued his diabolical monologue. "When it hits her... ship thing, she'll be lost to the void and every camera down there will shift their attention to us. And within only a matter of moments, the whole world will be primed to do my bidding! After they save us from the hole in the sky, of course."

"Father..."

"In just a few moments, we will have moved close enough to fire the missile with almost no chance of missing. Oh, Junior, today will be a day for celebration!"

"But, Father!"

"Not now, Junior!"

As the father and son duo got closer, they began to notice the helicopter was getting lower. Senior started having trouble controlling the aircraft. "I do not understand. What is going on?"

"I think it is that blinking." Junior point his finger at a flashing light.

Senior stared in confusion. "What? The fuel is empty? But you filled it up this morning!"

Senor Senior Junior rubbed his chin in thought. "I do not recall doing such a thing. But I will take your word for it."

The helicopter's descent suddenly increased and the two found themselves desperately locating their parachutes and jumping out to fall slowly down the cliff into the canyon.

"Well, Junior," Senor Senior Senior sighed, "It looks like we're having to go back to the drawing board." Noticing a grumpy look on his son's face, the billionaire asked, "What is the matter?"

Junior answered in a woeful voice, "I think I have helmet hair."

* * *

"Okay, I think that should do it. We're now ready to collapse the rift into itself." The WadeBot turned to Kim, with Wade on the screen smiling, "Keep us steady for a few more minutes Kim, and when the tear starts to shrink, keep up with it. We need to be at the edge for it to completely work."

"Okay," Kim slightly shouted behind her. The rift had not only grown in size, it was now trying to suck them in. The wind surrounding them had picked up as the hole pulled air inside.

Tucker frowned once more at what was happening. "What I don't get is, why is it sucking anything at all? It's not like it's a black hole, there shouldn't be any vacuum to pull the air into."

Wade, on the WadeBot's screen, shrugged. "Maybe the portal opens into an area of space? That would explain the vacuum."

Tucker looked at the tear. "But not why it didn't start right away."

Kim, noticing the two had started contemplating instead of working, shouted, "Maybe it wasn't stable enough to allow anything through. I don't know, but it doesn't matter. You both need to focus on shutting it down now!"

Tucker turned to her and nodded, before putting his attention back on the rift. Putting his PDA in the air, aiming for the center, he started typing the input commands Wade and him had worked out. He would have the whole thing gone within a few minutes, assuming everything went as it was supposed to.

It didn't. Before he had finished the commands and could activate it, he was suddenly distracted by the WadeBot exploding.

* * *

Down on the ground, Ron saw an explosion on the ship knock the WadeBot into the hole in the sky. His eyes widened as he saw his friend get sucked into another world, lost forever.

Gripping the sides of his head, Ron fell to his knees shouting, "Wade! NOOOO!"

Suddenly, the Ron-unicator on his pocket turned on, Wade's face appearing on the screen. "Relax, Ron, I'm right here."

Ron blinked and stood up, lowering his arms. He rubbed the back of his head in embarrassment. "Oh, yeah, huh."

* * *

Jerking behind her to see what happened, Kim saw the smoking heap of the WadeBot as it fell sideways into the sucking tear in the fabric of reality. Glancing around the craft, Kim spotted another vehicle hovering silently above them. This hovercraft was bigger and looked much more luxurious. As it lowered down next to them, she saw what had blown the WadeBot to pieces. A green, glowing fist. Shego.

But that wasn't all who showed up. "Hello, Kim Possible! This time you will not get in our way!"

Professor Dementor. A short and stout german who wore a helmet on his head that covered everything except the eyes, nose, and mouth. Of course, why they were here was a mystery to the heroic cheerleader. But before she could ask for his reasons, a shout from below carried up and brought all their attentions to a blue man on the ground waving his fist in anger. Drakken, of course.

"Shego, you traitorous wench! You work for me, not _Dementor_!"

Dementor shouted back, puffing out his chest. "That's Professor Dementor to you, _blue boy_. And Shego here _knows_ who is most capable of ruling the world!"

Shego shrugged, having returned to her laid back position on her seat, looking beyond bored and filing her fingernails. "Whatever."

Knowing they didn't have much time for conversation, Kim interrupted their little banter. "What do you want, Dementor?"

The german villain turned his attention back on her, calmly shrugging as if he were asking for a small favor. "A little birdie told me you had a device which could control the power of the vortex. I'm here to retrieve it, for my own neferious purposes." Turning to the sidekick that usually belonged to Drakken, he shouted, "Shego! Dispatch of the little red-haired troublemaker, will you?"

Smiling at the opportunity for another fight with her young foe, Shego rose from her seat and dove over to the other ship, completing a roll on the edge that brought her standing in a fighting pose. "Shall we try this again, Kimmie?"

Kim set the hovercraft's controls to keep them steady, then turned to Shego while pounding her right fist into her left hand. "You're on!"

The cheerleader did a forwards flip that landed her in front of Shego on the edge of the craft, and then immediately dodged a kick from the other woman. After sending off a kick of her own to counterattack, then avoiding a glowing punch, she glanced for a quick moment to make sure Tucker was all right.

Tucker was fine. He just found himself staring in awe at the two battling women in front of a tear to another universe. The two had obviously done this type of thing all the time, as they seemed to just fall into what seemed almost like a well-practiced dance. He could stare at them for a while, without paying any attention to the PDA slowly being pulled from his loose grasp. _Wait a second..._

Tucker glanced down to see that Dementor had snuck over to their craft and was stealing the PDA right from Tucker's hand. Sam would have a field day with him if she heard about that. Tucker grabbed the edge before the whole thing was taken, and held on tight as he and the professor engaged in an game of tug-of-war.

Dementor practically growled in annoyance. "This...will...be mine!" He suddenly kicked out at Tucker, knocking the dark-skinned boy into a chair. The villain lifted the PDA in the air in victory. "AH-HA-HA-HA-HA! I now have the power to control the vortex! None shall..."

He didn't get much further in his speech before Kim flipped away from Shego for a moment, jumped, and performed a spinning kick into Dementor's hand, then flipped back to her regular fighting opponent while avoiding an attack. The device itself flew past the stunned Tucker, bounced on the ship, and flew over the edge to the depths below.

Everything would have been lost at that instant, had Tucker not had an ace up his sleeve. A secret no one on this world knew about. The ability to do something that would get him out of almost any bad situation.

He screamed, "DANNY!"

Luckily for him, Sam heard him and smacked Danny across the back of the head for not paying attention. The ghost boy looked up and saw Tucker pointing down, screaming, "PDA!" Leaping from where he'd been bent over, looking at some fascinating equipment, he quickly went ghost and dove through the ground, taking a shortcut to the canyon below. Once he got there, hovering next to the cliff, he threw up a huge but weak ghost shield. It went above him in a half sphere that bent in towards him, looking a bit like a satellite dish. A moment later, he could hear a clacking sound as the PDA landed somewhere on it and tumbled down to rest right above his hands.

Smiling, Danny dropped the shield and caught the device, flying up into the air to land on the grassy plateau. In front of an entire world's worth of news journalists. _Aw, crud..._

* * *

Having averted disaster, Tucker smiled and turned back, only to realize that he was alone against a villainous mastermind. He looked into the professor's glaring eyes, and felt a rush of courage enter him. He stood up straight as they approached each other.

It was time to show what their fighting skills were worth, in a fierce battle.

Tucker and Dementor turned their heads away, closing their eyes as their hands went wild, slapping a frenzy at each other. Neither one was getting many hits in, but their arms were sure moving fast. Tucker held his tongue between his teeth, feeling it stick out while he gave it his all. But Dementor refused to back off.

Suddenly Tucker stopped and backed off, flinging his hands down at his sides to pump blood back into his arms. "Can we call a time out? I need a moment. My arms are killing me!"

Professor Dementor blinked. "You remind me of Miss Possible's other sidekick, what's-his-name."

Tucker frowned and protested. "I am not her sidekick!" As he sat on the nearby chair, he mumbled to himself, "I'm Danny's. And Sam's, for that matter. But not anybody else's!"

The villain ignored him, preparing to step over the edge of the craft to return to his own. Suddenly, an idea hit him. An opportunity too good to waste. Dementor smiled, sinisterly reaching for the controls of Drakken's hovercraft. He could afford to lose Shego, if it meant getting rid of Kim Possible. All he had to do was flick a few switches, jump back into his own hover vehicle, and pull away before either fighter realized what was happening. They would all be lost for eternity! And with both of them so focused on the other, this would be as easy as Apfelstrudel.

However, as Dementor leaned forward to send the two to their doom, he suddenly realized something. He'd already forgotten there was a third passenger: the dark-skinned kid with a strange red beret whom he'd just been fighting. The revelation hit him hard, hurting about as much as the boot on his hand.

Dementor tried to pull free, attempting to not cry out in pain in the process. He looked up and the boy's fist flung forward, smashing into his helmeted face. Dementor yanked back, crying out in pain.

Tucker had fared no better, pulling his hand back and shouting while he held it, wrapping it in his shirt. Punching someone with a metal helmet covering most of their face may not have been the best idea. Both hero and villain danced from the minor pains each suffered, while Kim and Shego continued their hair-raising battle on the edges of the two platforms hanging in front of a growing vortex of deadly power.

Finally, Kim got a lucky hit in and tossed Shego over her head into the other vehicle. One hard look at Dementor caused him to widen his eyes, jumping in after his accomplice. He pointed a finger at her and shouted, "You think you have beaten me, Miss Possible? Ha!"

He pulled back the ship and pressed a button. A giant laser came out from the bottom. "Now witness the firepower of this fully armed and operational death laser! If I can't have the device, neither can you!"

Kim raised an eyebrow. "A death laser? Really?"

"Silence!" Dementor roared. It was hardly an intense roar, but it was a bit more than a shout. "You will pay for your arrogance against me!" The death laser hummed to life, charging up.

Kim rolled her eyes and pulled out a hair-dryer with a grappling hook in the end. Firing it at the base of the laser, it connected and attached itself to it. She yanked it and sparks flew out of the bottom of the other hovercraft. Smoke started pouring out, and the vehicle's hover capabilities sputtered. The evil duo slowly started dropping downwards.

Professor Dementor's eyes widened as he said, much more quietly, "Oh. This is not good."

Shego slapped her face in frustration, muttering about the bozos she always ends up working for.

The craft sputters and dies on them, sending them both falling far below. Two parachutes open up on the way down, one green and black and the other with Dementor's face painted on.

Tucker cheered and pumped his arm. "That was awesome! We showed them!"

Kim smiled, shaking her head.

Tucker's eyes widened, remembering the PDA and the reason they were there. He ran to the edge of the craft, all of two quick steps, and searched the area below for his friend. Upon spotting Danny, standing there nervously while Sam heroically battled fierce reporters for him, Tuck shouted, "Danny! We need the PDA to shut this thing down!"

Danny looked up, smiling in relief. He hurriedly flew up into the air, his legs disappearing into what would best be described as a wispy tail. Leveling himself with the craft, Danny handed Tucker the PDA to deal with the hole between universes.

While Tucker turned and went to the other side of the hovercraft to deal with that, the ghost boy noticed Kim staring at him. Looking at her, he raised an eyebrow in amusement. "Yes?"

"Why's your hair white?"

* * *

Back on the ground of the plateau, all attempts to keep reporters from crossing over into the scientist camp had been abandoned. The boy who could change colors and fly, and who knows what else, now firmly had everyone's attention. Unfortunately, after he had flown up to deliver whatever he had caught, the strange boy had not return. He seemed to just hover there, watching whatever was going on.

A few reporters had spotted the boy talking to a gothically dressed girl, probably his girlfriend, and were now pestering her for information.

"Excuse me, miss-"

"Who was that-"

"How do you know-"

"Miss, what's your name?"

The girl rubbed her temples as she finally responded to a question, "Sam Manson."

"Miss Manson, what is your relationship-"

"Who was that-"

"What is your friend's name?"

Sam shoved her hands in the air, almost in a form of surrender. "All right! I will answer a few questions if you all promise to leave me alone afterwards!" Looking around at the small group of reporters who had singled her out, she saw a majority of agreement. Close enough.

Sam took a deep breath before letting it out. "His name is Danny Phantom in his ghost form." She waited as a whispering of "ghosts" went through them, grabbing their interest even more. "He's a half ghost, half human hybrid. His human name is Danny Fenton. And he _is_ my boyfriend. We, and my other friend up there with Kim Possible, are from an alternate world. We are traveling to worlds where events like that," Sam pointed up at the hole in the sky, "are taking place so that we can fix them. Which is what Tucker is doing right now."

Even as she said it, a distant shout was heard saying, "Look! The rift is collapsing!" Instantly, everyone's attention spun towards the tear in the universe above them as it got smaller, the tendrils that had started appearing on the edges pulling inward as the whole thing began dissipating back into the nothingness that it came from.

All over the news group, people turned towards the cameras focused on them and spoke to the basic extent of, "Somehow, Kim Possible has done it again!"

One of the reporters near Sam shouted, "And Danny Phantom!" Immediately, the name caught on and was whispered through the crowd. The reporters now had an identity for the mysterious being flying with the heroic cheerleader.

"And here they come!"

* * *

As they approached the crowds below, Danny saw that it was a frenzy. At the moment, the last thing he wanted was to be bombarded by reporters on another world. It was bad enough when it happened on his own, when his secret first got out.

He racked his brain for an idea, eventually coming across a good one. He turned to Kim and said, "Hey! Go and pick up your friend and meet Sam and me over there!" The ghost boy pointed to a hill with a steep edge a good distance from the crowds. They would have several minutes of peace before anyone outside of a helicopter could get to them.

Kim instantly knew what he had in mind, and nodded whole-heartedly. She lowered the hovercraft to match his descending speed, but pulled up sooner than he did so as not to test the controls. It would be a bad idea to crash at this point.

While Kim and Tucker grabbed Ron, Danny had angled himself towards Sam. She was surrounded by reporters and looking quite glad to see him return. He signaled her to prepare herself and she nodded, agreeing.

The news people in the area tried to avoid the quickly moving figure of a glowing kid in a white and black jumpsuit. It didn't matter, though, because Danny simply phased through the slower moving ones, sending a shudder through to their spines. He reached out and slowed long enough to grab Sam, turning her intangible as well. They both flew up into the bright sky, which was showing the first signs of sunset, allowing themselves to be oblivious to anything else happening below.

Staring at the sky ahead of her, Sam smiled. "Can you believe, Danny? A whole 'nother world! I had almost forgotten with everything that was going on. This isn't the same sky we grew up under."

Danny smiled, looking around in wonder as well. "Yeah. I've always wanted to grow up to be an astronaut. Who'd have thought I'd be skipping universes first?" He chuckled.

Sam allowed herself a rare moment of cuddling up to him as they sailed gently through the breeze, lowering down to where their hosts were currently landing. Looking around, at the mountain range and clouds and all the colors, the sight was beautiful. "I hope all the worlds are this nice."

Danny laughed. "It's the Swiss Alps, Sam. We have them at home. Besides, wouldn't you rather it be gloomy with dark clouds up above."

Sam jabbed at him with her elbow, going extra light for fear of falling. "What I meant was that I hope the worlds, and specifically the areas we travel to, are like our own. In a good way, of course. Not the bad things in our world, but the good things, like this place. And if you ever tell anyone I like fluffy white clouds better than gloomy dark ones, I'll show you exactly how dark_ I_ can get." She made a fist to emphasize her point, but she knew Danny saw her hiding a smile.

They soon landed, and walked up to Tucker.

"Hey guys! Kim's friend, Wade, is a super genius! Even I'm jealous! Between the two of us, I've just about got this enhanced PDA all figured out!"

"Uh, where is Wade, exactly?"

"Huh? Oh, right!" Tucker sheepishly unhooked a device from his belt and held it up. It had a screen showing a kid at a computer, slurping on a large drink.

"Hey, guys!" he waved. "Nice seeing you again!"

"Anyways," Tucker excitedly moved on, "we're just about to test this thing to make sure it works. You guys ready?"

Without even waiting for confirmation, Tucker turned and pointed to a random spot, pressing a button. Slowly, a rift similar to the one they'd just shut down formed. This one was obviously far more stable.

Sam nodded approvingly. "Good job, Tucker. I think we can leave you in charge of the portal opening and closing."

He frowned in annoyance as he grumbled, "It's _my_ PDA..."

Danny, however, had other things on his mind. "I hope we didn't freak anyone out too badly with my ghost powers. I tried not to use them, but..."

Kim waved off his apology. "Please, it's no big. Our world has its share of craziness, believe me. Did you not see the woman with the green glowing hands?"

Danny looked relieved. "So, you guys don't have a problem with me having ghost powers?"

Ron pointed at himself as he said, "Hey, I know all about having special abilites. I've got mystical monkey powers! It makes me a rockin' awesome fighter in monkey kung fu!" Ron vertically chopped his hand through the air as he let out a sound of, "Hya!"

Rufus climbed out of the blonde boy's pocket and did a karate chop and kick, letting out similar but higher pitched noises. Ron pointed his thumb at his small friend at the reminder as he said, "Oh, yeah, and Rufus, too."

Tucker looked confused. "Monkey power? Hold on, I thought you were afraid of monkeys?"

Ron frowned as he lowered his arms. "Why do you think I don't use it?"

Danny smiled and shook his head. Looking around at everybody, he decided it was time to go. "Well, it was great meeting you."

Kim looked a bit sad as she shook his hand, then Sam's and Tucker's. "Be careful, there's probably plenty of crazy stuff waiting for you out there."

Sam nodded. "We will. We've got each other, though, so we'll be fine."

Tucker shook Kim's hand, then Ron's. "It was great knowing you guys! Thanks for the nacos!" He held up a drippy bag with the words "Bueno Nacho" on the side.

Sam looked at it in disgust. "Tucker!"

Danny laughed as he turned to the portal waiting on them. "Okay, guys, let's go!"

Just as they were about to hop through the tear, Ron noticed a figure coming up the steep hill. "Hey, there's Yori!" Danny, Sam, and Tucker stopped and waved to her. She bowed and then gave a small wave as well.

"That was a sign of respect," Ron said, proud of that nugget of knowledge he had.

Rolling her eyes at the retorts she could have made but didn't, Sam jumped fearlessly into the rift. She was quickly followed by Danny and Tucker, as they moved on to a new adventure in the next world programmed into the PDA. The portal closed behind them, collapsing in on itself with a light sucking sound.

Kim smiled, staring at the spot where she had last seen them. "They make a good team, don't they?"

Ron nodded in agreement, before amending with, "Of course, they're no Team Stoppable."

"_Possible_," Kim corrected, emphatically, "and I don't know. Something tells me they have quite a journey ahead of them. I wonder if we'll ever see them again..."

* * *

Deep in the jungles of Africa, in a mountain surrounded with signs saying "Do Not Disturb, World Domination in Progress", a madman plots his masterful conquering of the Earth.

"Mwa-ha-ha-ha-agh *cough* ACK!"

Dr. Drakken grabbed a cup of water, drinking a swallow before continuing with a clearing of his throat. "*ahem* With all the data I retrieved on the rift, _and_ what I intercepted from Killigan's golf ball shaped probes, I will now be able to create my own stabilized tear in the space/time continuum!"

Looking towards the entrance of the room, where Shego had just appeared while carrying an enormous magnet, Drakken's smile grew. He ran over and grabbed a trailing cord, plugging it in before continuing his monologue. "And now, with Dementor's electromagnetic flux stabilizer, that Shego stole for me when she was pretending to work for him, I'll now be able to control the size and shape of any rift I create. And once I have shown the world what I am now capable of, everyone will now tremble and bow before me! Dr. Drakken!"

Shego watched with a raised eyebrow as her boss chuckled lightly, trying not to fall back into a coughing fit, with his hands splayed in the air in victory. She found herself _really_ hoping he wouldn't do the happy dictator dance again. "You do realize you over-used the word "now" in your rant again, right?"

Drakken paused and sent her a glare. "Shush, Shego, and let me revel in my moment of glorious victory!"

He ran over and practically petted his supercomputer a few feet away. "After all, I just moved all the information I require to take over the world into this one computer! The only copy of the most priceless formulas in existence are on this computer and my little flash drive in my pocket!"

Shego frowned as she looked at the rather heavy magnet in her hands. "Are you sure it's a good idea to have a giant magnet in the vicinity of your computer?"

"What do you mean?"

Suddenly a heavy shaking overtook the machine, and it started wobbling as Shego's magnet did the same. Drakken looked warily between the two, hesitantly saying, "Shego? Why do I suddenly have a bad feeling?"

Shego couldn't answer at that moment due to gritting her teeth, because while the computer was trying to pull away from the wall, the magnet was strongly pulling from her. She did manage to growl out, "I...can't...hold...on...much..."

Her strength gave out and the giant device flew as fast as a bullet to the other side of the room, crashing into the computer. Before it had even hit, all data was lost forever.

Drakken's jaw dropped open as he stared. He sadly pulled his flash drive out of his pocket. "Well, at least I have the backup data."

With only a quick wobble as warning, the flash drive darted from his grasp and stuck to the side of the magnet.

Both villains stood there for a moment, staring. Finally Dr. Drakken fell to his knees in anguish, crying out, "NOOOOOO!"

As the blue villain wept, Shego growled out a sigh, rubbing her temples. Time to pull out the sunlamps and lounging pool chair for a nice, staycation tan.

_

* * *

Next Time..._

_"Dakota Union High." Danny read aloud. "Dakota? Never been here, before."_

"_My name's Virgil. Virgil Hawkins."_

"_The Meta-Breed are attacking Static and Gear!"_

"_You're in over your head, he-ro. This time we've got an ace up our sleeve."_

_Danny stared in horror. "No... it can't be!"_


	4. Static Shock

"Okay, okay, so, get this, hehe, I go up to her and I turn my hand into a can-opener..."

"Shut it!" a dark voice barked. "I thought I heard something..."

Shiv stopped on demand, sitting up straight. The rest of Ebon's crew, known as the Meta-Breed, tensed up, hoping for a fight. They'd been stuck in these dark tunnels too long, it would be more than welcome to do something other than pass the time.

All was silent for a moment, and the tension that had filled the room faded away. Suddenly, just as the super-powered criminals started relaxing, a tear opened up in space in the middle of the abandoned subway. A bright light burst from its center, ripping through the darkened tunnels. All the meta-humans threw their arms in front of their faces, protecting their eyes from the vast change in lighting. Ebon, whose dark form was weakened by the light, slipped behind a pillar, blocking most of the pain.

Just as quickly as it came, the light vanished. Ebon stepped out and inspected the area it had originated from while the rest of his crew adjusted their eyes to the dark once more. At the foot of where space had been torn was a caped figure lying face down on the ground. A bald man whose features were difficult to discern in the dark, even by Ebon. Their mysterious guest groaned before slowly pushing himself off the ground, sliding his knees underneath himself for support. Ebon watched him closely as he heard his crew approaching from behind, apparently having gotten over the temporary blindness.

"Where- where am I?" the stranger's deep voice said in slight disorientation.

Ebon relaxed and crossed his arms while the rest of his crew got ready to have some fun with the intruder. "The better question is _who_ are you, chump."

A low, guttural sound emerged from the stranger as he unexpectedly chuckled. The guest slowly raised his head, surprising Ebon with red, powerful eyes glowing in the dim light. "Yes, I suppose that _is_ the better question."

* * *

Elsewhere, in another part of Dakota, a similar, though much more stable, rift appeared. After depositing three teens who landed in a tumble, it quickly vanished, leaving no trace it ever existed.

Danny, Sam, and Tucker untangled themselves and stood up, checking out their surroundings. They had landed just outside a school. Upon further inspection, they discovered the name of the school and, subsequently, the city where they landed.

"Dakota Union High." Danny read aloud, as he spotted a sign for the school. "Dakota?" Danny asked, turned around. "Anyone ever been here?"

Upon receiving only head-shakes, Danny looked toward the entrance of the school which had apparently just been let out. "What do we have on the scanner, Tuck?"

Tucker had already activated his PDA's rift scanning capabilities, checking out if they were close. Shaking his head, he put the PDA away. "Sorry, dude, nothing yet. There was a rift recently, but I can't tell where and it's not there anymore. Whatever it left behind either isn't close enough or isn't strong enough to detect."

Danny nodded. The group had already been on several trips, all simple except for that first one in the Swiss Alps of Kim Possible's world. They'd even already started a bit of a standard operating procedure. Check the PDA for an easy find and if there was none, get to know the area. "Alright, let's go see if any of the students have noticed anything in the past..." he paused, looking at Tucker.

"I'd say within the hour. It's strong enough that I don't think it was much more than that." Tucker shrugged. "I don't suppose we could start with lunch this time?"

Sam nodded in agreement. "I hate to agree with Tucker concerning food, but I'm more than ready to find something to eat."

Danny looked at all the kids leaving campus and then came to a decision. "All right, let's go talk to a few students while we're here, and while we're at it, we'll ask about what there is to eat in the neighborhood." Upon receiving agreeing nods, they made their way into the flood of kids escaping the torment of school.

As the three kids walked into the dissipating crowd of released students, another group was unknowingly heading right for them.

"So, then, Static gets thrown into Gear, and there's this explosion as all of Gear's suit goes haywire!" Frieda Goren giddily exclaimed, using hand gestures.

"Wow," came Virgil Hawkin's tired voice. He looked at Frieda, glad he knew enough about makeup to use his sister's and cover up the bruises from the battle his friend was currently discussing. "What did Static do then?"

"Are you sure you're okay, Virgil?" his girlfriend, Daisy Watkins, asked. She was concerned about his health more frequently and the teen superhero would've found it nice had it not caused him to lie more often to her.

"Oh, he's *yawn* fine, Daisy. We just stayed up all night playing Revenge of the Cyber Zombies III." Richard Foley stifled yet another yawn as he turned back to Frieda, wanting to change topics. "So, what did Gear do?"

"Oh, after he fell on Puff, the electric discharge from Gear's suit shot through her, turning her solid and taking her out! Then Static taunted Onyx into following into a trap, but before he could spring it, the big brute managed to grab Static and slammed him into a pole! After a few more punches, I thought Static was done for. But out of nowhere, the pole suddenly crashed down on Onyx's head! Then Static used the pole like a bat with his electricity, and hit him under the scaffold at the edge of the sculpture being built for the top of the front of the new theatre; where Puff had weakened the supports with her breath, remember? Onyx grabbed one of the beams to pull himself up, but instead got tons of cement and steel girders dropped on him, knocking him out cold. It was awesome! I can't believe you guys missed it!"

Daisy frowned. "Same here. You were both puking in the bathroom again, right?"

Richie panicked. "Oh, yeah. Those... uh... burritos sure were rough on us!"

Frieda's face contorted. "That's disgusting!"

Daisy was not so easily swayed. "Wait a sec, that was last week. Yesterday you said your sister called for you both to come take care of a mess at your house." She pointed at Virgil for the last part. Both she and Frieda looked at them accusingly.

Virgil, now also panicked, shrugged. "Well, if you remembered, why'd you ask?"

Daisy was about to respond when Virgil noticed three new faces heading their way. He quickly looked to Richie. "Hey, I wonder who they are. Haven't seen them around here before."

Richie let out a sigh of relief when Daisy was caught off-guard by Virgil's observation. He quickly joined in, "I bet they're new here. Let's go welcome them and offer a tour!" His best friend looked back at him, telling him with a look to not take it too far.

"Hello!" Virgil waved, attracting the attention of the newcomers. "You guys new in town?"

"Visiting." Danny's use of the rehearsed line made it sound just that: rehearsed. Luckily, it didn't mean anything to the other kids and they didn't pay the worn response any attention.

Tucker, feeling very hungry, blew past subtlety and got straight to the point. "Hey, you guys wouldn't happen to have noticed anything weird going on in the area, have you?"

Sam nearly slapped her face, but restrained herself. They were supposed to be blending in. Tucker's stomach was going to get them in trouble some day.

To her surprise, though, the whole group didn't see the question as strange at all. The african-american kid even laughed, saying, "Welcome to Dakota. Weirdest place on the map. Anything specific you're looking for?"

Before either Sam or Danny could silently shut him up, Tucker blabbed, "Like a tear in time and space?"

The other group's faces, which had previously been smiling in welcome, dropped into confusion. Frieda was the first to speak. "A what?"

Sam had gotten close enough to jab Tucker in the ribs. Danny laughed and said, "Sorry, Tucker's a sci-fi fanatic, he's always wanted to see a tear in time and space. We'd heard of weird stuff going on here and he let his hopes go wild." Turning to Tucker, Danny quietly added, "_Again_."

Tucker shut up after that, but they'd already piqued the curiosity of Virgil. The superhero in disguise leaned towards the obvious leader of the other group and offered his hand. "I'm sorry, where are my manners? My name's Virgil. This is Daisy," he continued, pointing at each person with his head, "Richie, and Frieda." He gave the other kid a look that practically required their names in return.

Danny obliged, tossing his head towards his friends as he said their names. "Danny, Sam, and Tucker." He reached out and firmly grasped Virgil's hand, only to immediately yank it back as a loud snap was heard. Upon touching, the two heroes had felt an enormous shock transfer between their palms.

After a moment of silence as both groups stared, Tucker laughed. "Well, that was _shocking_!" His laughter didn't last long, however, as Sam took pleasure in jabbing him again.

Danny and Virgil stared at each other for a moment, each studying the other's blank face. Sam cleared her throat and, as politely as she could, asked the two other girls if there was anything around that was good to eat. She got the locations of a place called Burger Fool and another place she could stop real quick for a veggie meal. After saying their farewells, Danny, Sam, and Tucker went on their way, leaving the other four to head to the mall.

Danny walked in silence for a few minutes before commenting, "There was something very strange about him."

Tucker slapped him on the back. "Don't worry about it, dude. Let's just get something to eat!"

* * *

"There was something very strange about that kid." Virgil rubbed his chin in thought.

"Hey, V, what was up with that shock you gave him?" Richie whispered as they trailed a short pace behind the gossiping girls. "Don't you think that was a bit risky?"

"I know, Rich!" Virgil shouted as quietly as possible. "It wasn't my fault. My powers just... I don't know, activated on their own."

Richie frowned. "Weird."

Virgil nodded. "But that's not even the weirdest thing. When he reached for my hand, his hand _looked_ dry."

Richie raised his eyebrow. "Umm... okay."

"Look, Rich," Virgil discreetly raised his hand to show his best friend. Richie looked curiously at the palm and used his index finger to wipe up a trace of the strange goo found there.

"What is this?"

Virgil shrugged. "I don't know, but I think it came from that kid's hand."

"I thought you said there wasn't anything on it?"

"That's what I mean, Richie. I think it came _from_ his hand."

"You thinking meta-human?"

"I don't know... but he had a look about him..." Virgil tried to continue, but Daisy interrupted.

"Hey, you guys going to tell us what you're talking about back there?" Virgil and Richie jerked their faces towards her in surprise.

"Huh? Oh, just gossiping about the new kids. That one kid's hands were so sweaty, we think he might be a bang baby." Virgil grinned and winked to show he was kidding.

Both Daisy and Frieda rolled their eyes and fell back into step with the boys. "So, you two got any plans?" Daisy asked, pointedly looking at Virgil. She was not happy with the last time Virgil ditched her, and she made it a point to let him know he'd have to make up for it.

Virgil laughed. "Ha! Us? Have plans? Me and Richie are _totally_ free, we're..." Virgil's giant grin slowly fell into a pitiful moan as the Meta-Breed busted through a bank. Daisy and Frieda didn't notice either boys' frustrations, however, as their attention was solely on the separating group of bang baby delinquents.

Of the girls, Frieda was the first to react. "Oh my gosh! It's the Meta-Breed! Somebody needs to call the cops!"

Daisy glanced back, noticing both boys had disappeared. Again. She groaned but didn't spend much time thinking about it as the criminal bang babies continued causing havoc. "If only we had a way to call Static and Gear!"

"Did somebody call for Static?" At the sound of the voice, both girls glanced up to see Static hovering above them, followed quickly by Gear.

"I think the little ladies asked for Gear, as well." Richie, in his Gear outfit, gave a great, hovering bow as if in front of an audience. The move was interrupted, however, as a car door slammed into him, knocking him to the street. Apparently, when Shiv had branched off from the gang, he'd headed towards the two girls he vainly thought might be admiring him. Oddly, he seemed to consider himself lucky to have happened upon the heroes, despite the fact he regularly lost to them.

Static, who had narrowly managed to avoid the thrown door, yelled to Shiv down below, "Hey, didn't your mother teach you better than to interrupt?"

Shiv grinned and held his energy blades high. "Oh, she tried, but I guess it just didn't take! Hahaha."

Virgil, who couldn't come up with a decent quick comeback, decided to go the questioning route instead, as he flew down and used the car the door came from to return the favor to Shiv. As he tried to use his electromagnetic abilities to wrap up the dumb criminal with parts of the car, Static asked, "So, what do you losers want today? You know I'm just going to beat you again."

Shiv, now confined in his metal bonds, shook his head. "Not this time. Heh heh. This time we've come with a few... surprises, hehehe!"

Static frowned as he hovered a foot off the ground. As he started to ask what his energetic enemy meant, he was suddenly jumped on from behind. Spinning around fast enough to dislodge his attacker, Static regained his balance and looked to identify who had jumped him.

His eyes widened as they fell upon a familiar purple glow coming from the hands of another Shiv. He shook his head, "Whoa, am I seeing double?"

Both identical villains spoke at the same time, giving them a creepy stereo sound, "Double the Shiv, double the trouble! Hahaha!"

The electric superhero shook his head and replied, "Well, it's not like I can't take on two of you!"

They both smiled and creepily spoke at the same time again. "Two of us? Maybe. But try three!" Upon saying that last word, Static was jumped by two more of Shiv, neither of whom he could knock off. "Oops, I guess we meant four! We were never good at math, heh heh!"

"They're not the only ones,_ he-ro_, if you stick around." Static managed to knock one of the Shivs off and turned to face Ebon. But he wasn't alone.

"Yeah, heh, you're dealing with a whole crowd of us now, Static!" Hot-Streak yelled from off to the side. "And we've all got a little... _upgrade_." The fiery kid laughed in what he imagined to be a sinister way, as he created a strange, green, glowing ball in his hands. It certainly wasn't fire, but Static had never seen it before. "Head's up!" Hot-Streak yelled as he threw the ball at Static.

As the black teen superhero tried to avoid the sudden onslaught of exploding green balls of energy, while trying to shake off the screaming Shiv giving his waist a fearful death grip, Static wondered what he was going to do about this strange turn of events.

* * *

Sam rolled her eyes as Tucker took another massive bite out of his burger. "I'll never understand how you can eat that stuff at all, never mind so much in one bite!"

Tucker waited long enough to swallow _most_ of his food before replying with only a few small bits flying out of his mouth. "It's an acquired talent."

The goth girl shook her head and turned to Danny, who was taking his time chewing his food as he stared into the distance. "Thinking about what we should do next?"

Danny turned to her and frowned. "Get to know the area, I guess. Ask around for... I don't know. We'll figure it out."

Sam frowned in return. "What are you worrying about?"

Her best friend, as well as boyfriend, shrugged in reply before adding, "Not every world uses the same currency, remember?"

Sam didn't have to think about it to know he meant two trips back, when they realized the only money they had wasn't worth anything. "Yeah, but it looks like most of them do. We'll just have to carry a few snack bars and hope we can fix whatever problems there are in a short amount of time."

Danny nodded. "I suppose, but it still worries me."

Sam sighed, having had a similar train of thought a few times. "If worse comes to worse and we get stuck somewhere for too long, we can always find a quick job."

Tucker nearly exploded with a mouthful of soda. He managed to swallow it in a coughing fit. "Job? I'm not taking a job! This is a vacation! Work should be minimal on a vacation."

Sam would have slapped him if she had been any closer. "This isn't a vacation, Tucker! We've been getting too relaxed about this!" With that, she turned to indicate she was including Danny in her lecture. "We've only been dealing with rifts and little items that they've dropped. Didn't Clockwork's friend say we would also have to deal with people? _Bad_ people? Enemies worse than what we're used to?"

Tucker tossed a hand in her direction, shooing away her concerns. "C'mon, we beat up the Ghost King! There's nothing we can't handle!"

Sam shot daggers at Tucker with her glare. "_We_ didn't stop Pariah, Tucker! Danny used a giant super suit and still wouldn't have won without Vlad's help!"

Danny scowled, joining in the argument that had taken off. "That was a long time ago! I've gotten a lot better since then!" Danny indignantly defended himself. He then muttered, "And it's not like Vlad really helped, all he did was lock a door..."

Tucker nodded in agreement. "Yeah, Vlad started that whole mess in the first place!"

Sam growled and waved her arms in the air, nearly shouting, "That's not the point!"

By now, a few onlookers were glancing their way. Danny waved nervously at them. "Sorry, ignore us. We were just... rehearsing... for a play."

The other customers of Burger Fool either shrugged or rolled their eyes, turning back to their meals.

Danny frowned as he looked at a slightly sheepish Sam. "Tucker's right, Sam. You need to relax. We've got this whole thing covered." Turning to Tucker's victorious face, Danny added, "But Sam _is_ right about it not being a vacation. We'll avoid any additional work until absolutely necessary, but you'll need to chip in if it comes to that."

Tucker sobered up and went back to eating, albeit more slowly than before. Sam frowned at the half win, but didn't press it. Danny nodded to himself, proud for defusing the situation and started to take another bite of his burger.

Before he could, however, the building suddenly shook.

"What was that?" Danny shouted as the customers of Burger Fool quickly panicked and ran outside. The trio heard people shouting about Meta-Breed and Static as they hurried to a safe distance to watch the oncoming battle. The Burger Fool staff, who were probably not allowed to leave, took cover while watching the three teens still inside, just in case they ordered some more.

Sam went to the counter, followed by the boys. "Hey, what's going on out there?"

"You don't know?" a pimply teen exclaimed. "You haven't been in town long, have you?"

All three shrugged.

"The Meta-Breed are attacking Static and Gear again. Some of their battles have caused some major damage!" The kid looked worriedly at the window, as if he expected someone to come flying through any moment.

Danny cleared his throat to get the other guy's attention. "And Static and Gear are?"

"The town's heros! They keep the bang babies in check!" The teen suddenly remembered something and straightened a little without completely coming out of hiding. "Would you like to order something?"

Danny and Sam frowned, but Tucker very gladly began to open his mouth to oblige. Before he could, Sam gladly elbowed him as Danny replied to the cashier, "No, I think we'll go outside and watch the fight."

As they exited the building and headed for a spot no one was looking, Tucker managed to complain, "Aw, come on. It's not like Sam and I could do anything to help anyways! Can't I go back to my burger!"

* * *

"Face it, _hero_, you just don't have what it takes to beat us any more!"

Static tried not to listen to Ebon's words, but the slick, shadowy figure was starting to make sense. Especially since it seemed Ebon learned how to fly. That didn't actually make much of a difference in his case, as he could already stretch to nearly any distance, but everyone else had also received a major boost, somehow.

Talon was flying _through_ walls, Hot-Streak's new green blasts exploded when they hit Static and turned to goo upon reaching Gear, gumming up some of his equipment, and Kangor was catching them both off guard now that he turned invisible! To avoid the significantly more dangerous Kangor, with his head-crushing giant feet, Static and Gear both stayed high above while the jamaican-american bang baby and four Shivs waited below. Unfortunately, this didn't help against any of their three flying foes.

As Static avoided a dive by Ebon, who apparently needed some flying lessons, he heard Shiv call out, "Hey! Come on, knock one of them down here so we can play with them!" Static sent another bolt of electricity at Ebon's back and tried to ignore the purple-haired psycho below. If things got much worse, he was tempted to call the Justice League in on this one.

Just as Static finished his thought, he felt an explosion rip at his back, blasting him into the air. Feeling the loss of his flying disc from under his feet, Static opened his eyes to find the ground coming up fast. The last he had seen of Gear, Talon had his partner running around in circles to avoid her intangible-to-the-last-moment attacks. Static knew he wouldn't be able to yank anything up to himself in time to slow his fall. It looked like he had decided too late to call for help, and now he'd never get the chance.

Suddenly a black and white blur came up out of nowhere and Static felt the front of his coat yanked upwards at a high velocity. Despite the sudden pain in his arms, the teen superhero felt immediately grateful for the save. The familiar feel of his metallic disc appeared under his feet, having been subconsciously called to him, Static flew a few feet away from his rescuer to get a good look at him.

A white-haired kid floated in front of him in a black and white... hazmat suit? The other teen's glowing green eyes took in the black superhero and then said in a somewhat echoing voice, "Well, are we going to fight or what?"

Static's eyes narrowed in confusion. "Huh?"

Danny realized his slip and corrected himself, pointing at the Meta-Breed that were all focused on a very frantic Gear. "Them. We fight them. Yes?"

Static nodded dumbly. Both superheros took a breath and then charged the group a short distance away. The Meta-Breed didn't see them coming, arrogantly playing with their prey, and were thrown off balance by the newcomer and Static. Danny fired several ectoblasts at Ebon, sending the shadowy figure tumbling into a rooftop with his uncontrolled flying.

Having barely spared a glance on behalf of the villain, Danny continued his route into a head-on collision with Talon. Phasing himself as he flew into her, Danny pounded the feathery foe down into a nearby wall, where gravity took over and pulled her to the ground. While Talon weakly attempted to push herself up, only to collapse, Danny checked on the other superhero, Gear. "Hey, you okay?"

Gear smiled, "Yep, couldn't be *cough* better. Professional superhero, right here. I think I'm going to go take a quick nap, though."

Danny chuckled and flew towards Static as he wrapped up with Hot-Streak. While Danny went after Talon, Static got the idea to turn Hot-Streak's own green energy blasts against him. Every time Hot-Streak started to fire, Static beat him to it and zapped the projectiles before they could leave his hand.

Hot-Streak's temper flared before he grinned and shouted, "Alright, Static, looks like we're doing this old-school!" He laughed, then went back to his usual use of his fire abilities.

The two of them danced around each other, tossing jokes and blasts at one another until Static managed to yank a piece of metal off a roof to distract Hot-Streak. With his oldest foe's temporary loss of balance, Static shot forward and slammed an electrically charged fist into his fiery combatant's face. After backing up and sending a massive charge into Hot-Streak, Static watched as he fell back to earth, slowing his fall before he hit.

"Impressive."

Static turned to see the mysterious helper floating in the air nearby, apparently having watched the end of the fight. "Thanks. What was your name?"

"Guys!" Gear burst into the scene, cutting off Danny's answer. "Shiv's got two hostages and Kangor's still stomping around somewhere down there!"

Static's face paled. "Shiv? With hostages? That's not good."

Danny's eyes widened. "What did the hostages look like?"

Gear was caught off guard by the question. "Uh... boy with red beret and yellow shirt and a goth girl."

Danny blasted off before Gear had finished and the other two superheros followed fairly close behind.

* * *

Sam wasn't quite sure how it happened. One moment, she's watching a battle high above and the next she and Tucker have glowing, purple blades held up to their necks. Their cackling villain wasn't helping either, as she didn't feel exactly safe with someone a few fries short of a Nasty Meal able to form almost any simple weapon they could think of. Especially one that could duplicate, with two to each prisoner. She had to find a way to defuse the situation quickly. "I've got to say, you're pretty powerful. What's your name?"

She allowed herself a small glance at Tucker, whose face jerked towards her in confusion, and hoped he was smart enough to be completely silent. She looked back at the goon in front of her standing in a pose.

"My name's Shiv, and you really think so?" Shiv replied in false modesty, very obviously reveling in the praise.

Sam grinned. "Yeah, I mean you can turn your hands into practically anything and you're able to duplicate yourself. It's awesome!"

Shiv pretended to wave down an audience's applause. "It's nothing, I'm sure."

Sam continued, a sly tone creeping into her voice. "Believe it or not, we've got a friend who can duplicate himself. It's a pretty cool ability."

The Shiv in front of Tucker grinned widely. "Yeah, it sure is!"

Sam nodded. "Of course, he always has to be careful to choose which one's the leader." At this point, she caught Tucker's understanding look show on his face in the corner of her eye. Thankfully, he was quick to hide it. She continued, "But I'm sure you've already taken care of that."

The Shiv in front of her laughed. "Well, of course! I'm the leader." From here, things got loud real fast.

"Hey, what about me?"

"What about you?"

"Hold on, I've got just as much say in this as you two!"

"Hey, I'm the original!"

"No you're not!"

"He's right, I am!"

"No, I am!"

"You want to prove it?"

After a few moments of bickering where they were, the Shivs all lost focus completely and dove towards each other. Sam and Tucker were ignored as the purple-haired bozos beat each other up.

Sam picked up her fallen backpack and pulled out her Fenton Wrist Ray, aiming it for the general Shiv population. "Alright, nobody move!" To emphasize her point, Sam blasted a rock next to the foot of one of the Shivs, earning a yelp from him as the rock shot away. As far as any of the Shivs had seen, she had disintegrated the rock.

"If anybody moves I'll make sure you go back to being one," Sam said very convincingly. In truth, she wasn't sure what the device would do to them, though that was one possibility.

The Shivs all gulped and threw their hands up in the air. As Sam watched them, satisfied with herself, Tucker noticed something on the PDA he had been studying the first chance he got. All of the Meta-Breed had tiny traces of otherworldly material in their DNA. Surprisingly, though, it was very similar to their own otherworldly traces that the PDA picked up. If Tucker had to guess, these super criminals were infected with something from a world just like theirs.

As he started to look up to inform Sam, a slight movement caught his eye. On the PDA, a blip was approaching. Fast.

Tucker yanked out his Fenton Stunner, a flashlight with the name Fenton on it that throws the minds of all beings, living or dead, into disarray. And it boils eggs. He quickly turned it on and shined it in the direction of the blip that was almost on top of him. Tucker saw a guy with enormous feet suddenly shift from stomping down onto him, to landing disoriented onto the ground. Tucker turned the device back off.

The guy groaned and said aloud, "Yo, mon, that was uncool." The jamaican accented villain then fell unconscious.

Tucker grinned widely and held the flashlight under his face, looking into it. "Wow, this thing really wor-" Tucker was immediately interrupted as he accidentally switched it on, where it promptly shone in his face. "Augh!"

Sam slapped her face as Tucker stumbled around for a few minutes before passing out himself. The Shivs were having a riot, none of them able to stand because they were laughing so hard. It was at this moment that Danny and the two local superheros returned.

"Sam! Tucker!" Danny flew in and landed next to Sam, examining her. "Are you all right?" Danny glanced around and saw Tucker lying face down. "What happened to Tucker?"

Sam laid a hand on his shoulder, making him look at her. "We're fine, Danny. I took out mister energy blades over there and Tucker knocked out bigfoot with the Fenton Stunner." Sam then took on an overdramatic tone as she added, "And then he looked into the stunner as he turned it on _again_, knocking himself out as well."

With that, the Shivs all fell back into fits of laughter, apparently all forgiven in their little group of one. As Danny slowly went from panic mode to snickering at his other best friend, Static felt compelled to ask, "So what kind of powers do you two have?" He pointed to both Sam and Tucker and then froze. He'd met them before. About an hour or two ago.

Sam smirked. "We don't have any powers, but we can kick butt just the same as you." She shot at a rock next to a slowly retreating Shiv for emphasis, then held up her Wrist Ray for Static and Gear to see. Gear, who had just finished snickering at Tucker when Sam demonstrated her firing capabilities, was anxious to see how it worked.

Static, however, was interested in something else. "My name's Static Shock, this is Gear. And you are?" He held up his hand to Danny.

Danny reached for it, replying, "Danny Phantom."

Upon touching, however, the two superheros jerked away from each other. Another powerful shock had erupted upon their touch, leaving Danny shaking his slightly burned hand and Static wiping goo onto his suit. Static proudly proclaimed, "Ha! I knew there was something weird about you earlier! You're the kid with the black hair!"

Sam raised her hand and replied for Danny. "Uh, did you just tell us you're the student we met earlier? Virgil, right?"

Static's face fell and Gear slapped his hand to the front of his helmet. He then whispered loudly, "Nice going, V!"

Static, or Virgil, shrugged while laughing nervously, "Heh heh, whoops."

Danny and Sam shook their heads, chuckling. The nice moment was interrupted by a green blast at the group's feet. The teens looked up to see Hot-Streak, Talon, and Ebon, the last of whom was now firmly planted on the ground with no intent of flying. Hot-Streak grinned viciously. "Looks like it's time for round two, losers!"

As both groups got ready to fight, Static noticed Ebon's eyes suddenly grow in what appeared to be recognition. He looked to see that his foe was staring at Danny, who was floating above the ground with ectoblasts in his hands. Now that Virgil thought about it, Danny's abilities matched the Meta-Breed's new ones. He decided to keep an eye on the new super hero, just in case.

Surprisingly, Ebon called out to his crew, "I think it's time we left." Everyone's eyes darted to him.

"But, Ebon-" Talon began, only to be cut off.

"No buts, we're outta here." Ebon opened a shadowy portal with his body. "Take care, _he-ro_. We'll be back to finish this!"

Had they not been so outnumbered, the teen heros would've tried to stop them. But they weren't prepared for a rematch so soon, especially with Gear so out of energy from his frantic fighting earlier. It didn't help that all three heros were distracted with worry for Sam and Tucker, who would be directly in harm's way. So the group just watched as Ebon and crew disappeared, allowing the Shivs to run past with an unconscious Kangor and dive in.

The four teens looked at each other and shrugged, with Static adding in a mock cheerful voice, "Just another Thursday!"

* * *

Deep in the dark subways of Dakota, an even darker form materialized. Five super-villains, eight including duplicates, returned home to figure out what went wrong after having just lost a fight. Ebon closed his portal and stepped up to their guest, who was regaining his strength in a cross-legged position on the ground. His closed eyes didn't see the finger jabbing at him from his pitch black host, but he heard it in the voice.

"What are you trying to pull, chump? I thought you said these extra powers would take care of our problem?"

"I take it things didn't go as planned?" The ghost opened his eyes and narrowed them, standing and floating upwards as he stared down at the shadowy delinquent in front of him. "Now why would that be?"

"If you're planning on blaming that mess on us, think again. You said no one could stand up to these powers, but someone did. Someone who reminded me a lot of you, all ghost-like." Ebon said this last part waving his hand at the stranger's floating, glowing stance.

The stranger raised an eyebrow. "Really? What did he look like?"

After a brief description of the new superhero from Ebon, the ghost turned around in thought. "Now this... is interesting. Let's switch up the plot a bit, change the stakes." The ghost spun back around with a deadly gleam in his eye. "I think _Danny Phantom _needs an early lesson in what's good for him... and what's not!"

As a sudden wind picked up, Ebon and crew unconsciously took a step backward when the stranger let out a much more chilling laughter than they'd expected, causing them to wonder about just what kind of deal they'd made.

* * *

"Ok, ok, so then Virgil, who's trying to bluff Hot-Streak into thinking he's still got powers, winks at him AGAIN. And I'm all out of Zap Caps!"

Danny, Sam, and Tucker all burst into outrageous laughter with the story, turning and laughing at Virgil who takes a swallow of soda in embarrassment. He put down the soda and added, "I managed to beat him, though! Without my powers I might add."

Richie grinned ear to ear. "Yeah... after you were running through the streets screaming like a little girl!"

Amongst the uproarious laughter, Virgil tried to defend himself. "I did not! I wasn't screaming!" But it was to no avail. The others enjoyed watching him squirm too much.

As the laughter died down and Virgil, poorly pretending to be in a bad mood, got Tucker another can of soda, Sam's laughter died down further than the rest. She stared in thought at the wall, sobering up. Upon noticing her stare, Danny frowned. "What is it?"

Sam looked at him. "I hate to say it, but we're wasting time. We have to take care of whatever the rift left behind."

Tucker spluttered at her absurd statement. "Are you crazy? We've got pizza, soda, and two superheros who know how to have fun!"

Danny nodded. "Yeah, we've got plenty of time. Besides, how often are we going to work with two professional superheros?" Danny and Static bumped sodas and drank as Tucker and Richie copied them.

Tucker smiled cheekily, "Mr. Foley!"

Richie returned the grin. "Mr. Foley!"

Sam frowned. "Isn't anyone curious about the meta-humans who have abilities from our world?"

Now Danny frowned as he looked at her patronizingly. "Come on, Sam, I've already worked it out." He turned to Tuck and said in a faux military tone. "Commander Tuck, where have we seen this style of strategy before?"

Tucker snapped to attention while still sitting. "Sir, Spectra's fake..." Tucker shuddered, "_hospital_, sir!"

Danny grinned, then tried a blank face again, only to fail. "And how did she do it?"

Tucker barely kept the grin from his face as he responded, "Sir, her assistant Bertrand put pieces of himself into the student body to give each one a single ghostly power!"

Richie raised his hand in amusement. "You forgot the sir!"

Tucker's face split into a huge grin as he added one last, "Sir!"

Danny turned to Sam, smiling. "See, we've got it all covered! Virgil and Richie can lead us to the Meta-Breed, because they know the city, and I'll use my ghost sense to track down Spectra and/or Bertrand!" Danny, quite proud of himself, fell back into the cushion of the couch and finished off his soda.

Sam, now in a bad mood, leaned back and finished her own soda. There was no reasoning with him now. Unfortunately, Danny's reassurances did nothing for the bad feeling in the pit of her stomach.

Her mood, and everyone else's, was interrupted when Richie's backpack, which he proudly displayed to them earlier, started screeching. Richie quickly yanked up his helmet as the info flew across its visor. "Police scanner picks up meta-human activity... it's the Meta-Breed!"

Everyone immediately jumped up and got ready for a throw down. Tucker, who didn't have much to do to get ready, walked over to Sam and teasingly said, "Well, guess you're happy."

However, 'happy' was not what Sam would call her feelings. Something in her gut was saying this was not going to end well.

* * *

Inside the food court at the local mall, all was normal for the moment. Sounds from the crowds filled the air and kept the different groups talking louder to compensate, fueling the overall noise. Children rushed around their parents, playing tag and otherwise getting into mischief. The quick bouts of their laughter occasionally caught the attention of other customers, who smiled down at them and shook their heads at the displays of joy.

A man eating a slice of pizza chuckled and turned to take another bite. He paused when he noticed a circular shadow on the wall that had not been there before. The man twisted around in his seat to locate the source of the shadow, but when he turned to look back, it no longer resembled a shadow. The purple-tinged black circle on the wall had become a solid darkness, and four beings materialized as they walked out of it. Then the darkness itself pulled together to form a fifth member of this sinister group, making it an entirely good time to run out of the mall in a panic.

As the entire area quickly shifted into a panic-filled stampede, the Meta-Breed calmly watched the evacuation. Calm being a relative word, of course, and Hot-Streak gave in to the urge to encourage the stragglers with a barrage of fireballs.

Ebon looked around, making a vague plan in his mind. Finally, he turned to his crew. "Now remember, Static is mine and Kangor's. Talon and Hot-Streak, keep gearhead and the two brats busy." The living shadow turned to Shiv. "And you get the Phantom kid. And Shiv," the white slits that constituted Ebon's eyes narrowed, "if you screw this up, it's on your head."

Shiv gulped and nervously chuckled as he gave a thumb's up.

Ebon glanced around the large dining area before announcing, "All right, crew, let's wreck this dump while we wait for the heros to show their faces."

* * *

It didn't take long for the heroic group to arrive, as the mall was not far and the majority of them could fly. Danny had to carry Sam and Tucker, a frequent transportation method of theirs, and dropped them off outside the building as backup. He didn't want them in an area that he knew would be a war-zone, and brooked no argument. Luckily, Sam and Tucker were well aware that the fight would likely make it outside before long, and agreed to not simply barge in after five minutes.

Flying into the food court, immediately inside the mall from that entrance, Danny, Static, and Gear found the place to be empty.

Static frowned. "Huh."

Gear took a step forward looking around carefully. "Well, _this_ isn't creepy. They are here right?"

Danny felt a wisp of cold breath leave him, causing a tiny blue smoke trail into the air. "Yeah, they're definit-"

He was interrupted from what he was saying when a screech suddenly sounded from directly behind him. The high-powered sonics from the scream packed a punch and threw Danny forward in the air. He collided with a decorative, fake plant with plastic leaves and fell onto a table a few feet below.

Static and Gear turned to see the feathery foe tackle the latter, with Hot-streak tossing fireballs at former. "Didn't expect to see us so soon, did ya, Static? Ha-ha-ha!" The fiery villain tossed a few ectoblasts as well, but Static was ready for them and blasted them before they could reach.

Static laughed as he shot one of the green, glowing blasts. "Come on, Francis, you can do better than that!"

Suddenly the shadow that seemed innocent as the hero passed it lashed out, catching Static on the jaw. "Course he can, but he don't need to. That's what _I'm_ here for!"

Out of the corner of his eye, Static saw Hot-streak head for Gear, who was once again having to deal with the intangible Talon. It seemed the Meta-Breed actually had a plan. Did they consider this a trap?

Dodging another attack by the shadowy villain, Static glanced over to see Danny getting ready to face Shiv. From the looks of it, it was only Shiv. By himself. Against Danny Phantom.

Static chuckled. "Well, if this was supposed to be some kind of ambush, I'll give you points for style. You guys came out of nowhere! Too bad the whooping we're about to give you makes it all pointless."

Ebon shot his arm forward in a punch, stretching it several feet thanks to his powers. Static rolled through the air on his disc to dodge and then raised his arms. Electricity hummed around him as he caught one of the fluorescent lights above his head and yanked it from the ceiling. Channeling his power through it, he shone it on Ebon's form.

The villain cried out in pain, but determinedly held himself there as he said, "You're forgetting something. There's a reason we wanted to stage this battle here."

Static raised an eyebrow, calm as ever. "Oh? Why's that?"

"Cause I can't fly, fool!" Without warning, two giant feet turned visible and pounded Static's back, the force of which threw him into a nearby wall, cracking it. Kangor landed victoriously on the ground, smirking, "And in here, there's nowhere to fly!"

Danny started out his fight laughing. He had been thrown from that first blast by Talon, but once he got up and reoriented himself, he found only Shiv approaching as his opponent. It was a fairly laughable situation.

At first.

The fight started about normal. Danny humored the villain and flew around him, shooting ectoblasts at the purple-haired loon's feet. Said loon kept jumping about, trying to avoid getting blasted, yelling, "Ouch-ouch-ouch!"

Danny fired at Shiv and watched the metahuman split into two copies on either side of the blast. "Oh, come on!" Danny shouted. "Do you know how much focus I have to put into doing that? How come duplication is so easy for everyone else?"

Both Shiv's shrugged, grinning. "Looks like you've got double the trouble!"

Danny snickered. "From you guys? I can take all four of you blindfolded."

The Shivs continued smiling. "There's not four of us, yet. Just three!"

Danny easily shot upwards as a purple sword slashed the air from behind where he had been. "Wait... Was I supposed to be surprised about the one 'sneaking' up behind me? Sorry."

All three Shivs got together and two of them lifted the third onto their shoulders. Danny could still stay out of reach if he lifted his legs to tuck underneath him, but he didn't bother. "Look, you guys, wouldn't it just be easier to just give up?"

All three Shivs simultaneously replied, "Feel free! We don't care!"

Danny gave an exasperated sigh. "You know I'm can just go intangible when you get up here, right?"

The Shivs positioned themselves and gave grins that looked positively murderous. If Danny hadn't been so sure of himself, he very well might've felt a bit of fear at the sight. The Shivs gave a count, "One for the money, two for the show, three for even more money, and four to GO!"

With a powerful push and a momentous jump, the third Shiv reached the calmly intangible Danny Phantom, ramming a sword clumsily upward. And hit.

Danny's eyes widened as he felt the slice that only caught the side of his lower calf. He grabbed his leg at the unexpected pain and flew upwards into the safety of height, holding himself against the roof as his mind tried to catch up to what happened. Shiv wouldn't be able to reach him up there. At least, normally.

But Shiv wasn't acting out his own poorly conceived plan. Someone else had given him a tip for just this kind of situation, someone with far more experience. Pulling themselves back into a pyramid, they repeated the process. This time, however, once the third Shiv was in the air, he duplicated. The fourth Shiv came into being crouched on the third, then pushed off, giving him the extra distance needed to stab a fire poker at Danny.

Danny reflexively went intangible again, but the poker stabbed the side of his arm. Once again, Shiv missed doing any major damage, but these were painful cuts that weren't suppose to be possible. Somehow, Shiv's power was unaffected by tangibility. This fight had taken a very unexpected turn for the worst.

* * *

Gear was having as little success as his teammates. Not only was he having the same problem with Talon as before, but now Hot-Streak was focused on shooting as much of the green, glowing substance he'd been given as possible. It turned to goo against Gear's machinery and one of the rockets on his left boot was already having difficulties. This was a battle he knew wouldn't last long.

Playing more a game of tag than anything, Gear took just a moment to check up on his teammates. He was shocked to see both of them struggling as well. This was... surprising.

Knowing he had to do something, Richie blasted himself past Talon and Hot-Streak, prepared a Zap Cap and threw it towards two Shivs. Aiming himself for Kangor, who no longer bothered being invisible, Gear used himself as a human torpedo and blasted into the jamaican from behind. Both slammed into the wall in front of them, knocking Kangor out and doing a number on Richie's already-present headache.

The Zap Cap that Gear had thrown to two Shivs expanded into several large, metallic arms that wrapped around them and contracted to trap them together. Danny, who had cleared his head some, flew off to the side of the remaining two Shivs. Staying out of reach, he sent powerful blasts into their chests, causing them to fade and return to the other two. With the Zap Cap keeping them from duplicating, the Shivs were no longer a threat.

As Danny turned to face Talon and Hot-Streak, Static stood in front of Ebon. Though the hero was obviously in pain, he stood in a fighting stance. "Okay, Ebon, looks like your plan failed." Cracking a smile, he added, "As usual."

"Plan?" Ebon laughed. "Hero, we haven't even started the plan, yet!" He pulled from nowhere a strange, cylindrical device. It... almost looked like a thermos. "All this was just to exert your little friend there."

Static looked in the direction his enemy indicated and saw Danny, exhausted and in pain. Ebon did as close to a smile as his blank, featureless face could get. "I guess we succeeded."

Before Static could do anything, Ebon uncapped the thermos and pointed it at Danny. Pressing a button, a powerful blue beam of light shone on the otherworldly hero. It didn't seem to hurt him, but instead pulled him towards it. Despite some resistance, Danny was quickly pulled into the thermos, somehow shrinking as he reached it. The cap immediately came back on, and Static was stunned to see that Danny was now out of the picture.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, _he-ro_, I've got someone to make a delivery to." Ebon gloatingly tossed the thermos up and down with his shadowy hand, before transforming into a shadow and racing away at a fast pace.

Static snapped back into reality and gave chase. Ebon was going unusually slow, but it was still a good speed. Perhaps Static had hurt him more than he realized with the light earlier. It would explain why the villain wasn't spending the energy to transport himself in his usual way.

Knowing that he might need some help, because Ebon could not be allowed to make off with his newfound friend, Static shot ahead at a faster speed and exited the mall first. He took a moment to look for Sam and Tucker before spotting them at the ready. Flying down to them, he quickly sputtered off, "Ebon used some kind of gadget that sucked Danny inside. He's about to make off with him!"

Sam and Tucker looked at each other in surprise, before turning back to Static. "By any chance, was that gadget shaped like a thermos with the name Fenton on it?"

Static blinked. He didn't remember the name, but it sounded like they recognized it. "Yeah, why?"

Sam spun to Tucker. "How'd he get a Fenton Thermos?"

Just then a shadow passed underneath them. Static desperately reached forward and pulled several streetlights out of the ground and hung them over Ebon. Pushing all of his energy into them, the light grew strong and powerful, sending the villain into screaming spasms. The Thermos appeared and Sam blasted it out of Ebon's grasp, following the slick shot with a shout, "Sorry, Danny!"

The shot had blasted a crack in the thermos, and it glowed from the power held inside. As the crack grew bigger, an enraged Ebon struck out. Knocking Static off his disc again, he also aimed himself for Sam.

Seeing that the very powerful metahuman, or Bang Baby as Static called them, was bearing down on her, Sam fearfully ran backwards. Tripping on a stone, she clumsily tried getting up and instead settled for crab-walking backwards. Static's quick blasts weren't serving enough of a distraction, and the dark creature was only a few feet away.

Tucker, scared himself, felt his mind racing for how to help his friend as he ran towards the darkness and tried shouting to distracting it. Suddenly, he hit upon an idea. A last ditch effort, but that was their specialty, after all. "Sam! They've got ghost powers! That means they've got a ghost's weakness as well!"

Sam blinked dumbly at him as she processed that, then her eyes widened in realization. Twisting herself to the backpack draped over one arm, she pulled out their own Fenton Thermos. Spinning around to the threat mere inches away, Sam yanked off the cap and pushed the button. A large light shone forth and captured the darkness in front of her. Ebon was pulled inside quickly, and Sam slammed the cap shut tight.

Smiling, she looked up to see Tucker pointing towards the Thermos with Danny trapped inside. "Sam, shoot the thermos! Danny'll be fine, trust me!"

Despite frequently beating up on Tucker, making fun of him, and generally treating him like a pest, Sam always knew to count on him when it came down to it. Without even hesitating, she let loose a blast that nailed the large crack on the side of the Thermos and shattered it. A puff of black and white smoke enlarged above it and transformed into the familiar figure of her best friend.

_And boyfriend_, she thought to herself. She always found herself having to add that part.

Running to him, she knelt down beside where he lay against a streetlight left from Static's use of them. He looked at her with exhaustion, but waved away her concern.

"Go on, Sam, I'll be fine." He smiled and she smiled back.

Static watched her run to Tucker and him, then the three turned and headed off to see to the mess left inside. Gear was probably frantically trying to keep order again. Static winced at the thought, knowing he'd owe his friend big after this. There was definitely vacation time in order.

* * *

As Danny sat there, about to get up and join the fight, he looked up and saw something familiar dash around a corner. Something he never thought he'd see here. Or, rather, some_one_.

_Did I just see Skulker? _Danny looked back at the fight and noticed everyone was doing fine without him. He sent a quick message to Sam and Tucker that he was looking into something and then flew after the Meta-Breed's ally, and one of Danny's most notable foes.

After taking a few twists and turns, Danny was afraid he might've lost him. But suddenly his ghost sense flared up again, dramatically, and Danny was grabbed from behind as he rounded a corner.

He felt himself thrown into a wall, then dropped like a brick to the ground that was, thankfully, nearby. After shaking his head and looking up at the culprit, Danny's eyes grew wide. The illusion of Skulker faded away, revealing the last person Danny would have ever expected.

His breath hitched with a spasm of fear as he whispered, "No..."

* * *

"NOOOOOOOO!" Talon screeched a deathly wail as she was pulled into the Fenton Thermos, leaving only two Shivs. As the four teen heros surrounded them, one yelled, "You'll never make us talk!"

Sam shrugged and sucked him in, smiling at his scream as he shrank into the tiny device now carrying seven criminals. Or five if you count Shiv only once, but he had successfully created two more duplicates. The problem being that they were stuck in Gear's trap like the original, which did him no good. Sam turned to regard the last Shiv, who visibly gulped before smiling very nervously. "What would you like to know?"

Sam, being the one with the 'weapon,' asked the question on everyone's minds. "Those aren't your powers. Who gave them to you?"

As Sam raised the thermos toward him, he started talking very quickly. "Uh, ok, well let's see here... He's green, well, more like a greenish blue... or a blueish green... I think he has all your friend's powers, the ghostly one? Yeah, and flaming white hair and glowing red eyes, yeah. And I think he and your friend were part of the same club or something, I mean why else would they be sporting the same design on their front, right? Hehe..."

Sam's bad feeling grew a thousandfold as she spun to see Tucker giving her the exact look she felt herself give him.

_No..._

* * *

"What's the matter, little _hero_?" The last part was said with a sneer. "Have you figured out who I am?"

Danny was shocked into silence, until what his evil alternate future self said registered in his mind. "Figured out? You mean, you haven't met me?"

The older ghost frowned. "Met you? I _am_ you!"

"Yeah, but... I'm your past, right? I mean, we haven't battled before or anything, you just know me because you used to be me, don't you?"

"You're talking strange, kid. Of course we haven't fought, I'm your future!"

Danny suddenly grinned. "No. You're my past!" He stood up and faced his alternate future's self. "I've already beaten you where I come from, and I changed my future!" Danny mentally added a '_so far as I know_,' but didn't care to share that information. "And I can do it again!"

Danny took in a deep breath, but something in his older self reflexed and the evil doppleganger jabbed his fingers forward into Danny's throat... hard.

After a moment of surprise on both ghosts' faces, the future version narrowed his eyes and regarded the younger one that was currently trying to breathe. "You've got the ghostly wail, don't you? You were going to use it on me, blast me out of the ballpark, weren't you?"

He grinned and leaned forward, whispering, "How's this for your plan?" The older ghost suddenly let loose a barrage of heavy hitting punches and kicks and numerous other painful attacks. As Danny felt a pummeling the likes of which he'd never before imagined, his far younger and less sturdy body began giving in to the brutal attack. The heroic half ghost slowly lost the energy to fight back.

A pain came over him as he lost track of the beatings he received, blurring his thought processes. The halfa wasn't even able to reply to the lovely voice coming into his ear with a strange sound of panic. When the darkness of unconsciousness came, he welcomed it.

* * *

"Danny! Danny, pick up! DANNY!" Sam jumped when she felt a hand on her shoulder, and turned to find Static looking at her in worry. They were all back outside, keeping an eye out for Danny.

"What's wrong?"

Sam took a breath and quickly explained. "I recognized the description Shiv gave. It's a ghost, all right, but not the one we were expecting. We've faced him before, and only barely won. We have to warn Danny before anything happens to him!"

"Oh, it's a bit too late for that."

Everybody's attention jerked upward, transfixed by the sight floating in the air. A very muscular blueish-green ghost with white fire for hair and deadly red eyes hovered calmly with Danny tossed over his shoulder like a weightless bag of potatoes. "Well, well, well. Sam and Tucker. If I had an ounce of humanity left in me, this would be a very touching little reunion. But of course, I surrendered any humanity a long time ago."

Sam blinked. That was precisely what he had said the first time. _That doesn't make any sense. Unless..._ Without even realizing her lips were moving, she whispered aloud, "He's not the same one."

Danny's evil future self raised an eyebrow and frowned as he lifted Danny off his shoulder. "Strange, I've been getting that a lot recently." He unceremoniously tossed his past self to the ground a few feet away from Sam. Danny's body rolled a little before settling face up. Sam threw herself to his side and checked for a heartbeat, feeling tears welling up in her.

"He's alive," the evil Phantom's voice came from above, "but I think I left him in a coma. Guess I'll have to wait for him to come out of it before I can _really_ break him down. I don't like the memories he brings up. Maybe, with a bit of work, I can even make him like me earlier than he's supposed to be. Wouldn't that be fun?"

Sam looked up to see the malicious being smirking at her. She gave him a hard look, trying to show that she wasn't afraid. Sam only wished it wasn't bluffing.

The other Phantom must have seen right through her, because he smiled sinisterly. "Either way, looks like I've got myself a brand new world to play in! I already played those meta-idiots like fools. They gave me everything I needed in exchange for a little bit of me, pieces of my ectoplasm that granted them temporary abilities. A trick I learned from Spectra and her lackey, if you remember. Now that I've regained my energy, however, I don't need help from anybody as I take over this world. I've already destroyed everything on ours, soon I'll be running this dump as well! Just call me Phantom, king of the worlds."

Despite the menacing ghost above, and his truly dangerous nature, Static and Gear looked at each other before laughing. "Sorry, _Phantom_," Static clarified after taking a calming breath. "It's just that... you'd have to go through the whole Justice League to do that. I mean, I can tell you're powerful and all, but they'll shut you down _fast_."

Richie picked up where his friend left off. "Totally. They've got Superman and Batman and all those other guys. You'll have to deal with them."

Phantom slowly slid a sinister smile onto his face before lowering himself closer to them. He calmly replied to their warning. "No. They'll have to deal with me!"

His chilling laughter rang through the air as the temperature dropped immensely. All four kids couldn't help but swallow hard when a powerful storm built up over the evil Phantom. He grinned viciously at them as he explained, "A little trick I picked up from a ghost calling himself Vortex. Just wait until I show you what I can really do!" With that, he shot up into the air and literally disappeared, yanking the thermos containing the Meta-Breed from Sam as it flew with him.

They all stared up at where the powerful storm had seemed to grow angrier in its master's absence. A bolt of lightning struck out, causing a citywide blackout. As another struck a building nearby, Tucker couldn't think of a single clever comment. Instead, all he could say was, "This... is not good."

_

* * *

Next Time..._

"_There's a big group of idiots in their underwear flying this way."_

_J'onn's sorrow-filled eyes turned to look at her. "His mind is okay, but his body's regenerative abilities have slowed considerably. It will take weeks for him to heal, at best."_

"_But we don't have weeks! We need him now!"_

"_With someone as powerful as Superman, I'll destroy your precious little city! And the rest of your world will burn after it!"_

"_This world doesn't have blood blossoms or ectoranium! How can we win?"_

"_I may know another weakness..."_


	5. Interlude I

**Author's Note:**

Merry Christmas!

Here's a little bonus chapter to celebrate! I hadn't originally planned it, so the story isn't important, but it's hopefully a little fun to read. I should post the next official chapter, Justice League, on the first of January, like I've been doing. Well, not the first of January, but the first of each month.

On a side note, I saw the latest Narnia movie, The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. I am… disappointed. The movie itself was good, but strayed so far from the book that the Narnia chapter of this story that I had started would make no sense to those who've only seen the movie. With that in mind, I would like to know what current readers (as few as there are) think I should do. Should I continue writing based on the book (and BBC movie), base it on the movie which more people are likely to have seen, set it in another point in time entirely, or abandon it altogether. I'm not likely to do the last one, but I figured I'd throw it in there.

Anyways, I hope you're all having a great end to this last year! Enjoy!

* * *

The depths of time and space pulled back, allowing her passage into another universe. She stared into yet another Earth, of which most any universe seemed focused upon. All of time opened to her, and she wrapped herself in its existence.

The Bad Wolf felt no answers would be found in this universe either, and began to move on.

But there was something specifically special about this world, and it caused her to pause in her retreat of it. Like most she had been to, this Earth was similar to her own in many ways. A great many ways. Including what might have happened on her own world.

There, on this world, in this universe, was another version of her Doctor.

He didn't physically look anything like how he did when she last saw him, and Rose Tyler may not have recognized him. But the Bad Wolf saw more than physical appearance, and this was her Doctor. Her Doctor, living life without her.

She focused on him, seeing him truly. His life flashed before her eyes, time unraveling just enough for her to see what happened, before snapping back into place. In this world, there had been no bump. The Bad Wolf had been temporary, and the Doctor brought his Rose back. There was no disappointment. There was no death, except for the captain's, and her renewal of him was forgiven.

But that Rose was not here either. She was trapped in another universe, trying to get back to her Doctor.

The Bad Wolf smiled, though haltingly. The more things changed, the more they stayed the same.

And yet, the mighty Bad Wolf found herself sobered at the sight below, if it could be said she had been anything but. There was trouble that the Doctor couldn't see, and it could cost him another life. As well as that of his fiery companion. His time was open to the Wolf like a book, and she peeked ahead to see that she didn't like the ending.

But she couldn't intervene.

No matter what happened, this wasn't her world or her time. She had already determined when her journey began that she could only intervene on behalf of the multiverse. And this would not affect anything on that scale. In this world, it was meant to happen.

There was nothing that could be done about that.

* * *

"Oi, spaceman!" Donna Noble felt nervous and was anxious to get out of metallic braces. "Are you gonna get me out o' this or what?"

"I'm working on it, Donna!" the Doctor ground through his teeth as he strained once more, facing her a few feet away. They were both held up straight against a large circle of wood, a few feet above the ground, fastened to the strong board with braces against their upper arms and legs. He had managed to pull his sonic screwdriver from his pocket with his teeth, which wasn't as easy as it sounds, and then barely got his hand to reach it from there. "These restraints are bolted thick, and the sonic doesn't work on wood."

"Yeah, yeah, excuses. But if I end up as a shish-kebob for these... uh, power...corks...eons, _whatever_, I'll kick your skinny butt back into our century!"

The Doctor gave an exasperated sigh as he rolled his eyes.

"The _palacoraxions_ are known for their competitive games primarily due to the role given to guests of the planet. The participation of guests is considered an honor among their people, and whether or not the participants survive, makes a peace treaty between other peoples easy. Good sportsmanship inspires trust, you know."

"Yeah, okay, so guests are required to play the games. Got it. Except we're not playing we're being _played_! What's up with that? A good peace treaty starts with throwing spears at the ambassadors?"

"Well, the point_ is_ to miss..."

"Yeah, all the best players are going to hit that small space in between us, I saw how those other target boards are set up. All the worst players are going to hit around us. So, what about the players in the middle?"

The Doctor remained silent, hoping she didn't realize he'd been wondering the same thing. He was still going through his options, but they were getting slimmer and slimmer. Sure, he could use the sonic to alter the course of the incoming spears, but to do that too often would raise suspicions. Then they'd die for sure, having disrespected the games. Should he leave it to chance?

The Doctor grimaced. No. Definitely not. The chances of survival were _too_ slim He couldn't risk Donna like that. He _had_ to get her home safely. Although, it _would_ make it easier if she would shut up for a moment and let him think.

"-tell you another thing. 'Soon as you get us out of here, I'm going to march right up to that smiling, self-righteous, pompous, windbag of a ruler and-"

The Doctor had to tune her out again, closing his eyes to focus his mind. He may have just gotten an idea.

After carefully calculating, his eyes jerked open and he smiled widely. "Donna, do you still have that necklace you stole from the Deckari?"

His companion stopped abruptly in her rant and glared at him. "I didn't steal it, it was a gift."

"Not according to their traditions."

"Well, he handed it to me and didn't protest when I walked away. What was I supposed to think? You didn't tell me anything until after we left, and I sure wasn't going back there where they were shoving those sharp confetti sticks at me!"

"Kinvente sticks."

"_Whatever!_"

The Doctor took a deep breath before letting it out slowly. "I need you to pull out your necklace and hold the gem over the brace on your arm."

"Which arm?"

"Doesn't matter."

Donna nodded and proceeded to make very awkward attempts at pulling the golden chain hung around her neck with her teeth. After using her chin to get it far enough down her shoulder for her mouth to reach it, Donna successfully grasped it between her teeth. She then stretched her head out for her hand to bend back and grab the necklace, though it took several tries and she was in pain by the time she managed it. Shifting the necklace so that the beautiful, glowing gem was right over the brace, she announced, "Okay, I'm ready!"

"All right, now listen carefully because this is going to be difficult. That gem, the reason why it glows, contains very special chemicals, most of which can't be found on Earth, or even most planets in your galaxy. Three of those chemicals, when mixed, which they are, obviously, eat metal. They ignore flesh and clothes and all of that, so don't worry, but they eat metal and those braces don't stand a chance. Now, I w-"

The Doctor stopped and they both turned in worry, listening to something that sounded like a mix between a trumpet and a flute. "The games will be starting in a few moments, then we may be out of time." Donna looked at him as he said that, the fear present in her eyes urging him on.

"Right, anyways, long story short, I'm going to use my sonic screwdriver to break that gem. As it's eating through the metal, here's the hard part, you're going to have to push and break it off, then catch it."

Donna blinked. "What?"

"Like I said, that's the hard part. You have to break it as it weakens and then catch it. You can't let it fall. Catch the brace as it's disintegrating, and hold it up against the brace on your leg. Some of the chemicals will move onto that one, starting its own disintegration. I want you to then toss me the arm brace, and use the leg brace, once its free, to free your other leg. Then, use that one to free your arm."

Donna took a deep breath, before nodding. "Well... all right, then. Here goes nothing. Whenever you're ready."

The Doctor took careful aim and activated his sonic screwdriver. It took a little bit because he had to keep adjusting the settings with one hand without dropping it, but a crack eventually appeared.

Donna let out a relieved laugh. "It's working, Doctor!" She bit her lip, waiting for the crystal-like thing to bust.

The Doctor stared intensely at the gem, willing it to break before they ran out of time. It almost surprised him when it finally obeyed, cracking into a thousand little cracks before quietly shattering all over the arm brace. "YES!" With the victorious shout, the Doctor urged Donna on in her goal of breaking the thing off the target board behind her.

Gritting her teeth, the Chiswick temp pushed her elbow forward as hard as she dared, not wanting to lose it when it popped off. With a final grunt, it loosened and fell.

The Doctor held his breath as things moved almost slowly for him. He restrained from yelling, "Get it!" but felt his hearts racing. This was rather nerve-wracking.

But, Donna came through like usual. She made a magnificent catch and quickly stuck it to the brace on her leg, looking up at the Doctor for more information.

The Doctor nodded excitedly. "Good, that's good. The chemicals that rubbed off can take it from there. Toss me the brace!" Donna obliged and he caught it easily, bringing it to rest on his own arm restraint.

Unfortunately, they were running out of time. The machine operating the game started to move the boards toward the door leading to the outside field. The Doctor quickly used his newly freed arm to hold his broken arm brace to his legs' restraints. Just as they were releasing, he grabbed one for his arm. He looked up at a noise to see Donna had landed and was scooting away from the moving boards.

Licking his lips, he strained against the slowly releasing arm band, feeling it buckle as the chemicals on it ate it to pieces. It was getting close now, he really didn't want to be seen escaping. If they thought he escaped earlier, they would have to spread their men further, making it easier for Donna and him to escape. But he had to break free from this target now!

No sooner had he finished the thought, than the brace came loose. He dropped to the floor and rolled out of the way, just in time to not let his foot penetrate the light outside. He ran to Donna, and the two of them made a break for it, being careful not to be spotted.

* * *

Checking the surrounding area for guards, who most certainly knew about their escape by now, the Doctor and Donna scurried out into the clearing that led to the nearby woods. The TARDIS was parked at the edge, out in the open, yet still unnoticed thanks to its perception filter. All the travelers had to do was reach it and they'd be gone to their next big adventure.

But it was not meant to be.

Up on the roof of the escapee's most recent cover, a palacoraxion had just arrived to scout out the below area for the insulting outsiders. He quickly spotted them, running in the open like a pair of brainless Chebbits. Anxious to be the one to put a stop to their outrageous antics, the individual grabbed his rifle with one hand and set off the safeties with another. His third hand lined up the sights on his scopes as he steadied the barrel with his extended nose. Once all three scopes' lenses lined up with the lanky alien running alongside his red-haired companion, the palacoraxion allowed himself a small smile.

Forcing himself to be absolutely still, the soon-to-be-promoted prajor wrapped his finger around the trigger. His steady aim was focused on the back of the alien's neck, for a shot that would kill any palacoraxion immediately; he didn't doubt it would do quite a bit of damage to this _doctor_, as he called himself. Wherever he and his friend thought they were going, they weren't going to make it in time.

Taking in a quick breath, the palacoraxion fired the five kinalelo bullet right, square center at the Doctor's neck.

And waited.

The surprised prajor watched as some blue box that he hadn't noticed disappeared into thin air with the aliens inside. There was no trace of them, and no hint that either of them suffered a hit by a bullet of any kind.

The perplexed palacoraxion pulled back, sitting in a state of wide-mouthed shock as he went over what happened in his mind. He had disengaged all safeties, he knew he did. There was even the sound of the gun firing. He had felt the recoil, so it was definitely his gun. The sights were lined up, and he had perfect vision in all three of his eyes. What could possibly have gone wrong?

The prajor unsteadily unlatched the ammo pod, and checked inside. It was empty of all beridian lava, which was impossible enough in itself. But there, on the far wall of the inner chamber, was scrawled two words that could never have made it in there since the last time he'd filled it. Strange words that somehow sent a shiver through him, even if he didn't understand what they meant.

Bad Wolf.

* * *

She watched as her Doctor soared off, diving through time and space. He would live a while longer, in this form. As would his companion, whose death would have hit him far harder than his own.

The being made of time energy frowned as her senses discerned Donna as having a special purpose, now that she was no longer about to die. Perhaps the Bad Wolf should have stuck to her duties and not messed with what was meant to be.

But it was _his _way.

So it would remain hers.

Rose Tyler may not have been completely broken off when the Bad Wolf was born. She was still there, influencing the powerful entity. There was more to what happened to her than she had first suspected.

Perhaps it was time to get some answers.

Having decided that she could do nothing else, save helping her agents when they called, the Bad Wolf finally moved on through the multiverse. Straying further away from the segments similar to the life she left, a brand new collection of infinite universes opened up before her.

It was time to seek out the answer to the most important question. The question ringing throughout the multiverse as it writhed in pain. Her question that existed ever since an unexpected bump in time held her back too long to be saved by her Doctor.

_Why am I?_


	6. Justice League

**Author's Note:**

Happy New Year!

As a bit of warning, I don't know if I'm any good with action scenes, as I've had little practice. The reason I tell you this, is that this is the most action-packed chapter I've done, and maybe will do for a while. Don't expect many (or even any) more like this, whether that's a good or bad thing. If you think I make great action sequences and want to see more, review! If you think I'm lousy and want me to stay away from them, review!

Actually, I wouldn't care if you reviewed even if you didn't care about it one way or the other! -)

Enjoy!

Edit: This has been partially edited since its original posting. Thanks for tips go to Cordria. If I had more time, I'd incorporate all the tips and make this and previous chapters even better; but as it is, I'm sure you would all rather me put my energies into new chapters. Sorry for the long wait!

* * *

"So, it all comes down to this, huh? Just you and me, facing off for the last time..."

"You're going to lose, Flash."

"I've faced super smart gorillas, weather controlling wimps, psycho billionaires with hair-loss issues, and any number of odd creatures from the deepest reaches of space. I can beat you."

The other man's head slowly shook, almost mockingly, "You can't beat me, Flash."

"I'll... I can beat you by... Batman will help me beat you!"

A grunt sounded behind Flash's head. "No, I won't."

Flash's opponent started getting impatient. "Just make your move!"

Faster than the Green Lantern could blink, the scarlet speedster shot his hand over the chessboard and called out, "Okay, your turn!"

After a moment of staring at the board, John Stewart suspiciously said, "That wasn't there before."

Flash innocently replied, "What wasn't where before?"

John frowned as he leaned forward. "And where's my rook?"

The red-suited man waved his arm over at the slightly-larger-sized pile of chess pieces off to his side. "I took him off the board awhile back, remember?"

The green ring on John's finger activated menacingly. "No, you didn't. I specifically remember my rook being right there!" he said, pointing at a spot next to one of Flash's pawns.

"Well, when you reach that certain age, they say memory is-" Flash was suddenly interrupted as an emergency signal came through, lighting the ceiling red and wailing insistently, sending everyone in the cafeteria rushing to the control room and leaving the already forgotten chess game behind.

Flash was the first to get there. "What is it? What's going on?"

Everyone else came in as Superman, who had guard duty for the past hour, activated a message sent from Gear in Dakota. "I just received it. Didn't have a chance to play it, yet."

The screen in front of the league activated to show Static and Gear in the middle of a thunderstorm with a couple of civilian kids behind them. The latter's voice was calling in a tone imitating an old police radio operator, with only a slight tinge of panic. "Calling the Justice League! Repeat, calling the Justice League! Can you read me?"

Superman pressed a button before nodding and calling out, "We hear you fine, Gear. What's the problem?"

Gear obviously couldn't help his slightly loud whispering of, "Dude, this is so cool!"

Luckily, Static elbowed past him into a better view and got to the point. "We have a problem concerning a very powerful ghost called Phantom from another dimension, over!"

An African American kid with a red beret stuck his head between them. "Actually, he's from another universe."

The new kid was yanked back and replaced by a young girl with black hair and purple lipstick. "_Actually_, he's from another dimension _in_ another universe. The point being that we need help. As in, anything you've got!" Rain started pouring heavily as she had begun to talk, then completely stopped again before she'd finished. It was oddly erratic weather, perhaps being controlled by whatever entity they were dealing with.

Before Superman could respond, Static added in a real quick, "Over."

Superman shook his head. "Enough with the "overs," Static. Get those kids out of there and we'll send a team to deal with the problem."

As the teen superhero started to respond, Sam shoved him out of her way and took over the conversation. "Look, no offense, whoever you are, but this is as much our problem as it is yours. And it's a much bigger problem than you realize. I don't know if you've fought ghosts before, but this is no ordinary dead spirit. This massive thunderstorm here isn't just for show, and that's the least of our worries." A bolt of lightning struck nearby as if to emphasize her point. It was much stronger than anything natural, the enormous white streak blowing a large hole through a car wash in the background.

Superman's eyebrows shot up, along with the rest of the Justice League's, at the display of power behind the teens. Superman cleared his throat. "With all due respect, miss, we are more than capable of dealing with whatever entity you're fighting. But we can't properly do our jobs with innocents in the way!"

Tucker would have intervened right then - tired of being left out - but even from behind her, Tuck knew what Sam's face would be saying. Danny was knocked into a coma, and it would not be smart to get in her way. He listened as she continued very heatedly, "We've been dealing with his kind long enough to know his weaknesses, what few he has, and how to use them against him. From what I've been told, you've never even encountered anyone of his kind before."

Superman held up his hand peacefully, trying to interrupt. "Now, just a minute."

Sam ramped up her anger, "Don't you 'just a minute' me, blue boy. My friend got knocked into a coma and I'm ticked! Every warning I've given since coming to this world has been ignored and got nothing but insults. I'm tired of being treated like the little girl in peril and if you _don't_ listen to me when you _all_ get here, I'll tear apart your hides _myself!_" Suddenly the screen went dead and showed nothing but digital snow.

As soon as the comm went out, Superman turned around and sighed. Whoever this girl was, she didn't seem like someone who took orders from anybody. He had a bad feeling about her.

It only made it worse that he caught Bruce smiling.

* * *

"Be careful with him!"

Gear nodded quickly to her, not wanting to challenge this suddenly fiery young girl. "You got it. I'll make sure nothing happens to him." He carefully rose off the ground, carrying an unconscious Danny towards the nearest hospital outside of the storm.

Another enormous blast of electricity created a hole in the ground a short distance away, followed by a thunderous laughter that came from all directions.

"Static!" Sam yelled to the only superhero left, "He's playing with us now, but he'll get serious when your friends arrive. You'll need to help everyone by acting as a lightning rod!"

Static blinked and yelled back, "What? A lightning rod?"

Sam nodded. "Yes. I know his ability, he can only be accurate to a certain extent. If you create a field of static electricity in the air, centralized on you, all lightning in the immediate area will redirect into you. Do you think you can handle that?"

Static turned to the last hole created from the intense electrical blasts and stared at it. After a moment, he turned back and nervously answered, "How hard can it be? Can you excuse me first, I think I need to find a lawyer."

Blinking at the odd comment, Tucker asked in confusion, "Lawyer?"

Static nodded. "Yeah, I'm going to need a will for this one!" He turned to Sam only to find she'd ignored him and pulled something out of her backpack. Static was surprised to see what looked like a bazooka. "What's that?"

Sam answered without looking up from her preparations, "A present for our friend up there! I'm not sure what the ghost zone portal setting would do in this universe, but the new rocket mode ought to bring him down a notch." She finished what she was doing and looked up at the sky, which had just switched from not raining anymore to a light hail. "Maybe."

Static walked up behind her and watched the sky. "So, you say you've fought this ghost before?"

"Danny did."

"Who is he?" The electric superhero glanced back down and between Sam and Tucker, curious about their familiarity with him.

Both of the ghost fighters shared a long look with each other before turning away. "You heard him," Sam said. "His name's Phantom."

"But why does he have the same symbol as Danny?"

Tucker, not wanting to let Sam do all the deflecting of the truth, decided to jump in with his big mouth. "It's a popular symbol for ghosts! Everyone's wearing them!"

Sam shot him a glare before turning back to Static. "Look, can we save the twenty questions for later? We've sort of got a problem on our hands!" She pointed up to where Phantom appeared suddenly in the air, slowly lowering himself towards the teens. A stroke of lightning flared around him, dramatizing his descent and highlighting the fanged smirk on his face.

"Just thought you'd care to know," Phantom began, drawling his words with unconcern, "as I was dumping the meta-dorks and trashing the thermos, I saw a big group of idiots in their underwear flying this way. Are they your friends you told me about?"

Static stuck his chin up. "Maybe."

The large ghost's face broke into an enormous grin. "Good." He fired a powerful ectoblast at Static, plowing the teen into the wall where he then slumped to the ground. The smirking ghost glanced around. "Got that tech boy to get Danny out of harm's way, huh? I guess I can always finish him off later. I've already worked out that he's not from my universe, so there's no problem with me ripping him apart. Heh, molecule by molecule even." Phantom chuckled a little at the memory as he swiftly dodged a shot from Tucker.

As Phantom lost focus on her, driving Tucker away from the scene with his ectoplasmic shots, Sam pulled out the Fenton Bazooka and set to fire at the villain's back. But just as she pulled the trigger, Phantom's head spun around, separate from his body, as he simply said, "Boo."

The freakish movement had the desired effect and threw Sam's balance off as the rocket fired, causing it to miss its target by a large margin. Phantom grinned viciously as his body turned around, slowly moving towards her as he taunted the suddenly scared girl, "I know everything that happens around me, Samantha. It would have been nothing for me to avoid that missile you so cleverly waited to fire at my back. But for you to have just missed me..." He closed the distance between them and floated above her in a powerful position, deep voice shaping into a domineering chide. "...shows me just how little you belong in these battles."

Sam tried to stop herself from backing up, but found she couldn't. She knew she couldn't aim and fire her Wrist Ray fast enough, and nothing else was coming to her frantic mind. Her back hit a brick wall and she felt herself shaking as this dark visage from the future looked upon her. He smiled and held a charged blast in his hand, directed at her.

"I haven't been human for a long time, now. But I think I'll still enjoy this blast of the past. Goodbye, Sam."

Suddenly, a red blur flew by and Phantom's head snapped back, causing him to stumble backwards. The blur came past again and again, several times in rapid succession, each passing causing the ghost a painful step back. Before Sam could figure out what was going on, a man dressed in red was standing before her, looking down at her. "You all right, miss?"

Stunned by his sudden appearance, all Sam could say was, "Who are you?"

The scarlet speedster smiled proudly and answered, "Flash, fastest man aliv-"

A green blast flashed from the back of his head as her savior flew face first into the wall next to her. Sam spun to see Phantom, looking no worse for wear, standing in the street with a satisfied smirk. "I'll admit I expected you to take longer in navigating that storm. You caught me by surprise. But you really shouldn't have slowed down like that, it makes for an easy target." Phantom charged another blast to send to the unconscious Flash.

As he fired it though, another man suddenly appeared in its way. Dressed in red and blue, with a cape flowing behind him, this one _caught_ the ectoblast in his hands where it harmlessly fizzled out. Having hardly let out a grunt from catching the blast, the man with an S on his chest folded his arms and spoke to Phantom, "I don't know who you are or where you're from, but this stops now."

Phantom held himself in a thoughtful position, mockingly thinking it over. "You know, I don't think so. Guess you're just gonna have to make me, huh?" His smile revealed his sharp fangs, red eyes glowing in the darkened light.

The new guy's eyes narrowed. "Not going to be a problem." As he finished, a woman with wings, a bird-like helmet, and a mace landed to his right while another woman wearing a red, white, and blue ...swimsuit, a crown, and a rope landed to his left. Neither outfits were quite what Sam would be caught dead wearing, especially the swimsuit, but it somehow suited them.

Phantom wolf-whistled. "Ladies, it'll be a pleasure getting tackled by you." With a wink, he shot a wad of sticky ectoplasm onto the right woman's rope, binding it to the leg it rested against. "I'm sure we could have fun with that later."

"How... inappropriate." Sam nearly gasped when a green ghost wearing blue shorts, a blue cape, and a red X over his chest flew through the wall next to her and stood with the other heroes.

The newest fighter caused Phantom to hesitate. "You're not a ghost."

Sam looked up at the green man as he replied, "No. I am a Martian. But since the desolation of my world, Earth has become my home and I will-"

Phantom waved a hand at him and yawned. "Yeah, yeah, bore me to tears why don't you? Where's your last member I saw coming, the other green one? Did he get lost on the way?" He smirked at his small joke.

A green light suddenly pounded him into the ground from the back. A strong, military voice came from above. "Not quite. You ready to give up, now? Or is this going to go down the hard way?"

The Justice League started to relax for a moment, before a deep, reverberating chuckle came from the Green Lantern's crater where the ghost lay face down. Suddenly, lightning blasted all around them as Phantom's head turned a hundred and eighty degrees with no signs of stressing his neck. Green Lantern frowned and said, "Silly me. It's always the hard way, isn't it?"

Lightning suddenly struck next to Hawkgirl, causing her to stumble. Superman called out over the now howling winds, "We have to get out of this storm and find some way to contain it! Whatever he's done to cause it, it's getting worse!"

Another bolt of lightning flew down, but was redirected to a purple, electric field several feet away. "No problem, Superman," Static's cocky voice rang out. "I've got your back! Give that dumb ghost one for me, would you?"

"Good job, Static. But I don't think that will be necessary." Turning back to the ghostly captive, Superman continued, "You're out of moves, Mr. Phantom. Time to turn yourself in."

Sam finally broke out of her shock right then. She looked around and noticed something was off. Upon landing her view on the eyes of the ghost of interest, the goth knew immediately what it was.

Green Lantern cuffed the submissive Phantom, feeling a little disappointed. "So much for not making it easy. That was a bit too anticlimactic."

Sam shouted, getting everyone's attention, "That's because it's not him!"

Hawkgirl, anxious for a fight, readied herself with her mace. "What?"

Superman clarified, "What do you mean it's not him?"

Sam pointed at the copy of the evil future alternate self of her best friend. "He can create duplicates of himself and I'm willing to bet that's one of them!"

Everyone turned towards the copy as he laughed. "Very good, Samantha! You deserve a prize." He then took a very deep breath in, expanding his chest.

At that very moment, J'onn J'onzz, the Martian Manhunter, was very lightly skimming the mind of the young girl, Samantha Manson. As the ghost took a breath, a memory burst forth in her mind of what was coming next: the incredibly destructive ghostly wail. Before she had a chance to open her mouth, he was already moving. Snatching Sam and Flash, he phased them through the ground as a massive wave of spectral sonics obliterated the area.

The superheros left behind could take the beating and Static was far enough to the side that he would be safe. But the power behind that blast of a scream was awe-inspiring, far more than the Black Canary was capable of letting loose. The side of the building, which had been evacuated, crumbled and the structure started collapsing. Superman sped over, despite his pain, and did his best to hold it up as he made sure everyone got away. It was made extra difficult with the ache from his super-hearing throwing him off balance.

Phantom had easily slipped out of the grasp of the Green Lantern and turned invisible, reappearing in front of Superman, who glared at him as he pushed to continue holding the building upright. He was still weakened from that blast and would be slow to heal with the sun blocked by the storm. The ghost sneered at him and said, "I have eight other copies causing havoc on your cities, and you and your friends have no way of knowing which is the real one, the only one who can stop the others. Your world is mine!"

He then let loose a powerful, ecto-charged punch that blasted Superman into the rubble under the collapsing building. Phantom phased out as the whole structure collapsed on top of them, crushing anything underneath.

After being satisfied with the destruction, and with no sign of Superman, the copy dispersed itself, ending its existence and recombining with the original some distance away.

* * *

Batman stood from his position behind the console. He had watched and listened as the Justice League took on the newest threat, studying the methods of the enemy. It wasn't much to go on, but he didn't like it. This new foe was more than just powerful, he was smart, too. Batman needed the girl who already knew at least some of this ghost's capabilities. It was important to know what they were up against. First, though, he wanted to meet the ghost himself for that very reason. An assessment of his intellect would be necessary for any future plans.

As the Dark Knight sent copies of files from the League console to his Batplane, he mentally prepared himself for meeting Phantom. Known attributes included control of the weather to an unknown extent, a sonic scream several levels above Black Canary, some form of green energy discharge from the hands, strength only a few levels below Wonder Woman's, invisibility, and an unknown high level awareness of his surroundings. The last might actually be a strong familiarity with the girl in black, but the detective could take no chances. He'd have to be careful.

Arriving in the hanger area, Batman boarded his jet. Having prepared it for take-off remotely, it shot out of the hanger area within moments of sealing the cockpit. His fine-tuned, multi-million dollar aircraft made its way through the Earth's atmosphere and dived towards America, fixing on Gotham. Within minutes, Batman was soaring over the rooftops of his home, slowing to land on a helipad on a subsidiary building of Wayne Enterprises. With his new cloaking device installed, Batman found it much easier to park. What he felt uncomfortable about was landing here in the middle of the day. Batman was supposed to be nocturnal, and though many League activities forced him into the daylight, he preferred to stay in the darkness while in his city.

But he was being called.

A storm was blowing a mile away, one of nine storms that had started immediately after the one in Dakota finished. It wasn't there by chance, despite what Batman knew the League would say if they were asked. Phantom was calling him specifically. Having faced the other heroes of the world's mightiest force, the ghost would want to flex his muscles against the seventh member. Batman wisely took it as a warning that Phantom knew enough to not underestimate his opponent. One of the Dark Knight's many advantages against super-powered foes was their desire to dismiss him as too little a threat. It wouldn't be that easy, this time.

Batman carefully made his way from rooftop to rooftop, using every ounce of stealth he knew. It was a considerable amount and would normally prove to be the quickest route to taking an enemy down. However, this time Batman used it to test Phantom and the ghost's awareness of surroundings.

Having spotted the building under which the floating ghost waited - sending the occasional lightning bolt at the streets - Batman silently made his way around, watching every movement Phantom made. Using the few shadows available to him, Batman made his way across the roof to the halfway point he'd marked off in his head.

Upon reaching it, however, he heard Phantom's voice speak, "And who might you be, trying to sneak up behind me?"

Batman frowned as he stood straight. He was hoping he could get closer before being spotted. This level of awareness... complicated things. "You know who I am."

Phantom turned around with an eyebrow slightly raised. "Really? What makes you say that?"

"I watched as that copy confronted the League. The only weapon he disabled was Wonder Woman's magic lasso."

The ghost shrugged. "So? I guess I'm just lucky."

"Hawkgirl carried that big of a mace and he only took action against a thin rope? I don't think so."

"Well, now, it looks likes someone's clever. Guess those claims of 'the world's greatest detective' aren't all that far-fetched." Phantom looked at his opponent curiously. "What now?"

"You came to Gotham to draw me out, you tell me."

The ghost shrugged. "I went to a lot of places."

Batman shook his head minutely. "No, your copies did."

_That_ raised the villain's eyebrow as he looked over Batman again. "My, you are smart. I think I'll have fun with you." He grinned wickedly, "After I torch your city, of course." Phantom raised a fiery green fist to emphasize his point.

Batman didn't even flinch. "That's not going to happen."

The ghost lowered his arm. "Are you going to stop me?"

"I don't have to. Superman allowed you to think he was down. He should be here momentarily. With you unconscious, your copies will likely disintegrate."

"Superman? Ha!" Phantom flew to within inches of Batman's face. "He'll make this even easier for me. You see, I can control people. And with someone as powerful as Superman, I'll destroy your precious little city! And the rest of your world will burn after it!"

Batman raised an eyebrow at the new information, but shook his head. "Superman's been controlled by better than you. None of them last long, between his Kryptonian mind and powerful strength of will. You don't stand a chance."

"Oh, but what you don't understand, Batman, is this..." The villain leaned in to whisper, "I don't need long."

Realization came and Batman's eyes widened beneath his cowl as he tried his hardest to shout a warning to the now-approaching Kal-El. But with Superman shifting into a higher speed, Batman had no time.

* * *

As Superman flew at the ghostly being in front of Batman, he was only aware of Batman's suddenly faster heart-rate. Could this ghost actually make Bruce afraid? Superman put on an extra speed boost, ready to take down this newest threat. The last thing the Man of Steel saw was his hand reaching through the stranger's semi-transparent body, and then Clark's mind fell into turmoil.

* * *

Batman jumped back just as Superman's body slammed down the roof's center, quickly running and diving off the edge of the building as it crumbled and imploded while the possessed alien blew through several floors of office space before blasting through a gap into the next building. Luckily, the immediate area was evacuated at the beginning of the storm, thanks to Batman's warning sent to Commissioner Gordon. But the caped crusader knew that this area would not be enough. With Clark's speed and strength, this could reach the next state within minutes. He had to find a way to steer them away from populated areas until Alfred could deliver the Kryptonite tranquilizer he'd built.

He hated resorting to such measures, but there would be no hesitation. The only problem was, Batman knew exactly what would happen once Superman got hit with the tranq gun. The ghost would leave freely and the League's heaviest hitter would be out. Despite this distasteful outcome, Gotham's guardian knew every second counted.

Batman reached the top of a building a block down, then gathered his bearings. Superman was flying through buildings in a direction forty-five degrees from his own. His head was gripped in his hands, flying crookedly and randomly as he fought an internal battle with the increasingly annoying Phantom. If the ghost continued to be this effective at destruction, the toll on Gotham would be tremendous. It would put the city, and even the state, in a disarray that would have repercussions for years to come; a situation that must be avoided.

Having worked through all of this in a fraction of a second, Batman called the Batplane to come pick him up as he darted across rooftops. He needed to slow down Kal-El's path in whatever way he could.

Leaping onto the rope ladder that automatically dropped, Batman scurried into the cockpit and shot towards Superman, aiming for the likeliest place the alien would dart to next. Batman had already worked out a slight pattern to the random flying and plunging, and he fired a small rocket to help direct his friend into the jet's path.

"Sorry about this." Hitting his accelerators as hard as he dared, Batman slammed Superman into the grip of two pincer-like bars that protruded from the front of the plane. Having Kryptonite-laced spikes lined along the interior didn't make the catch any less painful for the Kryptonian. Batman immediately hit the accelerators to maximum and fired the secondary jet propulsion units. It would only take a minute to reach the target area at the new speed.

Warning alarms blared as Superman's thrashing caused metal to rip apart. Batman pulled a few barrel rolls to slow him down, but nothing would last long. Aiming the squirming superhero near the Wayne Manor estate, Batman sent out a call to Alfred with directions on where to deliver the tranquilizer. Knowing the butler would be there within a minute of landing, Batman dove with his captive into the hillside.

At the last second, before he would no longer be able to escape the impact or debris, Batman ejected out of the plane and allowed his cape to guide his controlled descent to the ground. Taking stock of his surroundings, he spotted a familiar vehicle approaching.

Below the caped crusader, the jet immediately collided with a small group of sturdy trees. Despite the strength of their roots, however, they were blown apart as the aircraft plunged through them and ignited in a large explosion. Batman could feel the intense heat as he neared the ground, and saw a few pieces of the aerial vehicle flying in various directions. Luckily, his Kevlar kept him safe from whatever small debris came his way, and he had wrapped his thick cape around the exposed part of his face to keep it safe.

Landing next to the expensive Rolls Royce that had just pulled up, Batman walked over to where Alfred waited for him. The butler raised an eyebrow as his employer reached him. "I do hope that's not _another_ vehicle you've totaled in the past month..."

Batman took the offered tranq gun and prepared it. "The boat doesn't count."

Alfred sighed. "I'm starting to think you _enjoy_ working long hours into the day on fixing or even _remaking_ vehicles that don't survive your fast-paced lifestyle."

Bruce smirked as he snapped the safety off and aimed for the wreckage. After only a moment of silence, a fist punched through the plane and tore apart a hole big enough for Superman to lean through, one hand on his head as the other blindly lashed out. Batman lined up a shot and let loose a flurry of darts filled with a very special formula. One guaranteed to knock out Superman for several hours.

Superman flailed wildly as he was hit by several of the little stingers. He slowed down and let out a moan as he lost his strength. The Kryptonian's hand drooped out of the hole in the wreck and all was silent for a moment. It didn't last long, as Phantom's hideous laughter floated from the unconscious body. The spirit appeared, leaving the fallen hero's body behind.

Phantom looked around, impressed. "Nice job, Batman. I don't know how it happened, it was pretty busy in there, but you just took out your heavy hitter." The ghost gave a mock salute. "Thanks a million!" He laughed loudly as he flew into the night sky, ready to head back to a more populated area.

"Good heavens," Alfred said, staring after the villain, "I take it he's the troublesome spirit you mentioned? You might need some help taking him down."

Batman narrowed his eyes. "From more than just the League."

* * *

"You must stay here!" The Martian Manhunter's voice was clear and left little room for argument.

Sam was _used_ to working with little room for argument. "I am going to help! And there's nothing you can do to stop me!" She looked like she was resisting the urge to shake her fist in the alien's face.

J'onn's monotone voice had somehow grown irritated. "My powers make me more than capable of halting your ceaseless-"

Tucker tuned them both out, sighing as he considered the situation they were in. After John, or whatever his name was, saved Sam and the red dude, he picked up Static and Tucker. Carrying all four of them, the creepy alien from Mars found a hotel room to stuff them in. After Flash woke up, he gave his thanks and disappeared out the door, with Sam attempting to follow. Tucker resisted the urge to chuckle when he thought about the look Sam gave the Martian when he first tried to stop her. Poor guy.

Tucker looked out the window, where Static's fading figure could still be seen. It didn't take too long after Flash left for the teen superhero to convince the Martian to let him leave. He was a superhero after all, and he promised to focus on making sure the people of Dakota were all right. After a quick call to Richie, Static saluted everyone and flew off.

Tucker sighed as he thought about Richie's backpack. So beautiful...

"...Isn't that right, Tucker?" Sam finished, turning towards her friend.

Sitting backwards in his seat, Tucker's head jerked up from where his chin perched on the back of the chair. He blinked in confusion before answering. "Yeah, of course, whatever she said."

Sam threw her hands in the air as she snarled towards the ceiling. Looking back down at Tucker, she shouted, "Are you paying even a little attention to what's going on?"

Tucker shrugged, used to her outbursts. Lowering his head back to the chair, he said, "I just want to see Danny."

Now it was Sam's turn to blink, as she suddenly lost her anger and sat on the bed, dejected. "He'll be fine," she whispered. "He always is..."

* * *

The stony-faced Martian stayed silent, letting the teens brood over their friend's state. He disliked that such young children should have to face something like this. J'onn started to lose himself to his thoughts. Thoughts of the war his world suffered. Thoughts of little children crying in the streets as their homes crashed around them. Thoughts of his family...

J'onn shook his head. No one so young should face war, and he wouldn't let these children go face this menace of a spirit. No matter how much they wanted to. But... seeing their friend might do them some good. And maybe bringing them to him will help his recovery, as well. Clearing his throat, the Martian gathered the attention of the two teens with blank stares.

"Perhaps a visit to your friend will-" the Martian cut himself off as he cocked his head to the side and put his hand to his ear, receiving a signal from Batman.

"Manhunter here." The Martian's blank face distorted into shock as Batman informed him Superman was 'down' without giving any more information. "Is there anythi-. Yes. Of course."

After a moment, J'onn put his hand down and turned to Sam and Tucker, sighing. "Batman will be here shortly. He requests," the Martian nearly flinched when he used such a light word to describe Batman's cold demand, "that you prepare to give him all information regarding Phantom."

Sam and Tucker looked at each other before turning back and nodding. Tucker attempted a smile. "Got a PDA?"

* * *

KRAKOOM!

Another blast of lightning barely missed the Flash. They were getting closer. The speedster didn't know how Phantom was getting more accurate, but he knew he needed to figure out a way to switch it up and throw him off.

Phantom, or his clone, was currently hovering in the air, throwing lightning, hail, and rough winds at Flash and Green Lantern without breaking a sweat. Being too high up for Flash to hit, the speedster had to find loose objects to pelt him with. However, these only served to distract him as he quickly put up glowing shields or turned intangible when something came his way. The only real headway the heros made were Lantern's attacks, which were slow and unsteady due to John having to split his focus between attacking and creating a lightning rod to protect himself, not to mention the occasional deflection of oversized hail.

Their foe laughed maniacally again, teleporting behind Green Lantern and tapping his shoulder. Turning invisible and intangible, the ghost flew through the galactic peacekeeper as he spun around and pounded an ecto-charged fist into the hero's back. He laughed and disappeared again.

John cursed, then shouted, "He's screwing with us!"

Flash called out, "Can you blame him? He's too powerful!"

John growled, "No he's not!" Raising his ring to his face, Green Lantern queried, "Ring, find any traces of unknown substance and transmit location visually." Lowering the ring, John willed a visor to cover his eyes. Muttering to himself, he whispered, "You're powered by ectoplasm, right? Well, my ring can scan any substance, invisible or not. So you'd better find another way of hiding..."

Slowly rotating around, the Green Lantern kept a watchful eye for his quarry. As he gazed through the green field in front of his eyes, he caught sight of a dark silhouette in the Phantom's shape. The chuckling ghost was currently distracted by Flash's flurry of pebbles flying through the air, which weren't even close enough for him to bother turning intangible. John grinned. "Gotch'a!" Pushing forward with all the speed available to him, he created a spear and rammed it at Phantom's chest. The surprised ghost was quick to dodge, but not quick enough. The spear rammed through his shoulder and caused a massive shock of pain.

Green Lantern reached a few yards away and turned around. "Ha! How do ya like that, creep?"

The clone snarled and fully healed his arm. It had hurt, but the damage wasn't permanent to someone with that much power. Now that he was angry, he decided to pull out the big guns. Phantom's clone threw his arms up into the air and twirled them around, causing the giant cloud that hovered over the city to twist down in front of him.

Green Lantern and Flash gaped as a giant twister touched down upon the earth, shredding the sides of buildings and any vehicles on the ground. A tree was quickly uprooted and thrown high into the tornado. It was slightly terrifying, even if they were only focused on the damage it could do to the city that they'd be helpless to stop.

The ghostly foe held a sadistic smile as he chuckled. "Have fun, boys! It should be a _breeze_! Ha!" Flying away from the conflicted do-gooders, Phantom's copy took his fun elsewhere.

The mighty whirlwind tore through the cars on the street like they were made of paper. The pull from the stern wind caused uncertainty in the heroes, dragging both towards the monstrous pillar in front of them. Flash froze for only a moment before taking a couple of big breaths.

John shouted worriedly, "I'm not going to be able to contain it! It's too big! We need to abandon this position and make sure everyone is safely away!"

Flash didn't blink as he stared down the approaching tornado, responding. "_You_ can't stop it!" Preparing himself, he added, "I can!"

Flash started running, faster than he'd run in a while. He aimed for the side of the tornado, angling himself to hit it at a tangent. As he neared, the winds appeared to start slowing down, as did everything else. In previous battles, Flash had made tiny whirlwinds to assist him by running in a circle at high speeds. He wondered if he could do the reverse. Running counter to the giant tornado facing him, he stepped up the pace. Running faster and faster and faster, Flash felt the pull of the twister lessen.

From normal time, outside the tornado, all the Green Lantern could see was a blur of red. He felt like he could see it gaining speed, and he watched the whirlwind rapidly slow and dissipate. It lessened in intensity, and then started fading away as the speedy superhero slowed down with it. John lowered himself to where the Flash finally allowed himself to stop and pant.

Looking around, the Green Lantern saw the street was no worse for wear, minus the wrecked automobiles and a couple of walls. The troublesome ghost was still causing some mayhem with lightning nearby, but nothing too dangerous at the moment. Landing next to Flash, he looked at the speedster silently.

Flash raised an eyebrow and managed to say, "What?"

"Nothing, kid." John smiled approvingly. "You did good."

Flash smiled, then stood up straight. "All right, enough of this mushy stuff. Let's go rip that vampire ghost a new one!" As the Flash blew past him, John rolled his eyes and followed.

* * *

"What's taking him so long?" Sam was starting to get impatient. Tucker sighed and leaned back in his chair. He had turned around in it when they worked out a detailed list of Phantom's capabilities, as far as they knew, and now just wanted to fall asleep. It had been a long day.

As Sam frustratedly gripped the notepad provided by the hotel, ready to shove it at this 'Batman,' J'onn J'onzz frowned. "You need to be patient, Samantha."

Sam spun and glared at him as Tucker sat up straight in his seat. "What did you call me?"

J'onn looked confused. "Is that not the full name of a female Sam? I am not fully accustomed to your world's odd naming rituals."

Sam bit her tongue and sat down with her arms crossed. She could forgive him for being an alien. "Just don't call me that again."

"It might be wise to listen to her." The voice came from the window, which had been closed moments ago. Sam and Tucker jumped in their seats, spinning around to look at the Dark Knight, standing there so calmly.

Sam caught her breath and crossed her arms again, trying to look stubbornly challenging. "I take it you're Batman."

The hero in regard looked at her and held out his hand. "The list."

Sam handed him the notepad. "You get right to the point, don't you?" Sam looked at Batman's 'eyes' to show she wasn't afraid. But what she saw was more than just two white slits resting in a mask. He radiated a calm power that broke through her defenses.

Sam had looked all sorts of people in the eyes. Dangerous, powerful people. Vlad himself could cause most people to scare by just looking at them. But with the possible exception of Danny's future evil self, Sam had never been afraid of anyone and always stared into everybody's eyes as an equal. Until now, when the unforgiving eyes of the tall, imposing man in black looked into her soul and called her out on her hidden fears.

She couldn't help but shift uncomfortably as they stared each other down. She felt herself gulp visibly when she lost, involuntarily glancing to the ground. His gaze was... unnerving.

Batman coldly responded, "Do you want Phantom to win?"

Sam nearly cracked her neck as she shot her head up to look at Batman in shock. Tucker and J'onn also looked surprised. He continued, "Do you want him to destroy entire cities? Filled with innocent civilians?"

Sam blinked in shock at the question, before choking out, "No, of course not!" She looked nearly in tears.

J'onn started to step towards the Dark Knight, heart aching for the struggling child before him. Batman stopped him with a raised hand, a small gesture to tell him he knew what he was doing. "Then tell me everything. What are you holding back?" Sam's eyes widened before looking back to the ground. After only a moment, Batman turned around and headed for the window, growling out, "I don't have time for this."

Sam burst out with the truth before she could stop herself. "He's Danny!"

J'onn's eyes widened as he looked at her. Batman stopped but didn't turn around. Sam continued, "My best friend, Danny Fenton, is also a half-ghost named Danny Phantom. One time he had to face an alternate timeline where he turned evil in the future. Danny won. But this was in another world. We're from another world, we've never even heard of the Justice League before now."

Sam took a moment to compose herself, trying not to break into tears before finishing. "We came to this world because we're trying to fix cracks that break between universes, and whatever those cracks leave. In this case, it's another evil future of Danny, calling himself Phantom. But Phantom caught Danny by surprise, and now my best friend is lying in a coma somewhere, and I don't even know how he's doing!" Now Sam was crying, if only barely, as she tried to keep it together as best she could.

No one moved. Sam pulled herself together enough to transform her sadness into anger, "Well?"

Batman turned to J'onn. "Take them to the boy. Do what you can to save him, we'll pick up the slack." And with that, Batman jumped out the window and disappeared, allowing no trace that he'd been there except for the open window.

J'onn stared out after him for a moment. Then he turned to the teens with him, "Sam. Tucker. Are you ready to go see your friend?"

He received two very determined nods as his answer.

* * *

After sealing the cockpit and taking off, Batman contacted the League. "What's your status?"

Green Lantern responded, "Wonder Woman and Hawkgirl have taken down two copies, they're moving to a third. Flash and I are still having trouble with this one down in Los Angeles, though, and we could use a hand."

Batman raised an eyebrow under his cowl. "They defeated two so quickly?"

Green Lantern confirmed, "Yeah, thanks to Hawkgirl."

Batman nodded. "Nth metal. Her mace must make quick work of the copies, disrupting their connection to the original."

There was a moment's pause before Batman received a response. "Uh, sure... that makes sense. Personally, I thought she was just hitting them really hard. It _is_ Shayera."

Batman grunted, the closest he got to rolling his eyes. "Keep her focused on all targets except the one now appearing in Metropolis. That attribute of the Nth metal would have little effect on the original, and we need to slow the copies' progress. Tell Wonder Woman to join us and have Flash assist Hawkgirl. We're going to need the heavy hitters against the original."

"Will J'onn be joining us?"

"No." Batman didn't bother with an explanation, he knew the Marine would accept his answer.

Batman activated the League comm again. "Flash, do you copy?"

Flash's cocky voice came over the line. "Yeah, I copy big guy. I'm already on my way to Shayera's position."

"Do not go near the ghosts. Keep them distracted from a distance so Hawkgirl can dispatch them. Do not engage directly. The last thing I need is for one of them to gain your speed."

"I'm too important to lose, got it!"

Batman signed off and calculated the route to Phantom in Metropolis. Gunning the engines, he set about making a plan for the upcoming confrontation. In the back of his mind, he was also searching for a way to awaken the young boy, Danny. Considering the foe they're currently facing was his future, he would be a big advantage.

J'onn would see to his mind, but if the boy's body was broken, there would not be much that could be done.

Batman pushed the jet's accelerators further, then frowned in thought. There was a possibility...

* * *

It was an average hospital room. White, sterile, with lots of medical thingamajigs around. It was Tucker's worst nightmare.

Sam took a moment to look at her technologically inclined friend. To get him this far in the hospital would take either a miracle... or a nightmare come to life.

She wasn't surprised to see he didn't even care.

Neither of them were of any use to anyone at the moment, unfortunately. It may have helped to keep busy. Just sitting around, in the same room as Danny's comatose body...

She sighed as she got off that track of thought and looked at the green alien she and Tuck were growing accustomed to. Sort of. His current state of entering Danny's mind _was_ a little off-putting, but they'd all seen weirder. Right now, his hand was on her friend's head while he closed his eyes in concentration. He was so still, she jumped when he spoke.

"On the list, you made mention of the ability to heal himself?" J'onn lowered his outstretched arm as he turned to regard Sam. When she nodded in confirmation, he continued, "From what I know of the different physiologies I have studied, the best answer I can give you as to why he hasn't awoken is that his body is not ready. His regenerative abilities have been greatly slowed, perhaps intentionally."

Sam couldn't tell for sure what that meant, and it didn't help that the Martian's face was so hard to read. "What does that mean?"

"He may take a while to wake up." J'onn's voice was somewhat grim, but seemed to convey that they were lucky. His voice switched to one of better news as he continued. "The good news is that his mind is still intact. He is only comatose as his body's reaction to rerouting all energy towards healing himself. While I am unsure why it has not been enough to do so, this is good news. Once his body has healed, he will be back to his old self. For now, I will try to determine how soon his body can pull together to heal itself."

Sam didn't necessarily like the situation, but that did help calm her nerves. Danny would survive.

Now, if they could just stop Phantom...

* * *

As Batman neared Metropolis, he made one more call to J'onn before making his decision. He needed an update on Danny Fenton's mental stability.

The Martian answered immediately, apparently having already spent enough time with the boy. "Danny's mind is fine, but his body is too damaged for him to safely regain consciousness at the moment. As far as he's concerned, he's dreaming. I won't risk making him aware of his situation."

Batman considered his options for a moment before finally agreeing to his initial decision. "I'm sending someone to help."

"Who?"

As Batman clicked off, his only reply was, "A friend of a friend."

He then switched channels to one he tried very hard not to use. He knew how much his apprentice valued privacy, just like him. But more than that, the boy needed independency from his mentor. However, that would have to be put on hold for now. "Robin, do you read?"

The comm was silent for a moment, before a static-filled voice replied, "Batman? What's wrong?"

Batman spoke very abruptly and more quickly than when he talked with others, despite it having been awhile since their last conversation. He knew Robin would understand him better than most. "We have a situation. I need a favor from one of your team..."

* * *

J'onn shook his head sadly as he looked to Sam and Tucker. "I'm sorry. It could be weeks until he revives, months before he can be active. Whatever it is that repairs him under normal circumstances appears to have been damaged to the point of near uselessness. My guess is that Phantom is somehow responsible for its slow state."

Sam and Tucker looked at each other, then slowly turned around and sat down. Their friend's mind may be sturdy, but without a body... "He'll be fine, right?" Sam's worried voice broke out first. "Assuming nothing else happens to him, Danny's body will heal in a few weeks?"

J'onn nodded. "Yes. There is nothing I can do to speed it up, but..."

"Maybe I can." A new voice had come without warning and everyone shot up in defensive positions in time to see a hooded figure step out of a black hole that had appeared at the door. "My name is Raven. I was sent by Batman to help."

Sam's eyebrow shot up as she crossed her arms. Normally, she would comment on this new person's style, wearing a dark blue leotard and hood over her pale skin and violet-blue hair. Under the circumstances, however, she could only be suspicious. "Help out how?"

Raven took a moment to study the three teens and the Martian. She then turned to Sam. "One of my abilities is healing, whether of myself or others. It isn't that powerful, but if he already has the ability to heal quickly, perhaps I can boost its strength."

J'onn nodded towards the new girl. "I have heard of your abilities. Your thoughts on how to use them are astute. It should be sufficient."

Raven shrugged. "It was Batman's idea, but I'll do my best to help."

Sam hesitated for a minute, still looking over this strange girl in front of her. There was something off about her... Sam shook her head. It didn't matter, they just needed to get Danny up. Sam felt Raven looking at her as she heard herself say, "Save him."

Raven nodded and floated into the air, coming to rest at the head of Danny's hospital bed in a cross-legged position. As she went about her... whatever it was she was doing, Sam went up to Danny's side and held his hand, looking pleadingly at his closed eyes. '_He has to wake up. He just has to...'_

* * *

"Oh, Hera..."

Wonder Woman had just arrived in Metropolis, where the largest storm the city had ever seen almost overwhelmed the fighting going on a few miles away. A torrent of heavy rain and hail made it difficult to see, but the green coming from the battle managed to light its way through. Between the glowing emerald blasts thrown from Phantom and the familiar green energy flung from John Stewart's power ring, Diana could quickly make out what was happening as she neared. The continuous lightning didn't hurt, either.

Batman and Green Lantern were visible, fiercely battling the powerful spirit from another world. She had to admit it looked like John was doing the more furious attacking, distracting the ghost from the numerous attempts by Bruce to find its weakness. His current strategy seemed to be a combination of cryogenic batarangs and acidic exploding pellets, if the smoke's color was anything to go by. While it seemed to have an effect, it wasn't enough to satisfy the Dark Knight, who drew back into the shadows to strategize.

Knowing that the constant thunder and heavy rain would make it difficult to communicate, the Amazon princess flew into the fight without sending a warning to her allies. She came from above and a bit behind Phantom as he was dodging an attack by the Green Lantern a few yards away. She swung both her fists down together as she dropped towards the alien ghost, connecting with his back instead of his head, as he had started moving quicker than she expected. Still, the surprise attack had achieved its objective and Phantom reeled away in pain. But as Diana attempted to follow through with an uppercut, her hand went right through him.

Looking into his face as she realized she couldn't touch him, the warrior princess felt the tiniest twinge of fear looking into his eyes. His dark, red eyes glared through her in anger. His blood-thirst was easy to see while he left no doubts about what he was willing to do. This monster, whatever it was, was definitely not human. Yet, Diana wondered whether it had been, once. A hatred as intense as what she saw could only come from an agony caused by loss. This creature was born of pain, a pain that called for vengeance. It was unfortunate that her enemy was too far gone from whatever it had once been; there would be no reasoning with it.

All this had flown through Wonder Woman's mind for a mere second, but the distracting thoughts were just enough to slow her reflexes by a tiny margin. That's all her enemy needed to strike. Turning tangible, Phantom slammed the palm of his hand upwards into Wonder Woman's jaw, then gripped her neck and kneed her in the gut. As he started to slide an intangible hand inside her, to mess with a few organs, Phantom spotted a green battering ram of energy about to pummel him into a nearby building. Acting quickly, the ghost instead jerked back, dragging the disoriented princess with him. With no time for John's reflexes to kick in and stop the attack, it hit Diana.

That attack had all of the ex-Marine's force behind it, and Wonder Woman was sent flying through an office window, down for the count. Green Lantern looked on in shock, unable to believe he let himself get so careless. In his fear for Diana's safety, he hadn't thought through his attack, a mistake not made since his early days in the Corps. He turned a very hard look to the chuckling nuisance below.

"Well, now, I_ like _how accommodating your Justice League is. I don't think I've taken a single one of you down, you seem to do it for me. First Batman takes out Super-dud, and now you've just knocked Wonder Loser into the next century!" Phantom clapped his hands in mock admiration. "I _like_ fighting you!"

From the shadows of the building next to him, Phantom heard a gruff voice call, "Not for long." Having had only enough time to figure out the voice belonged to Batman, a batarang came from nowhere and attached to the gloating ghost's chest. A small electric charge and a high-pitched sonic shriek emitted from the center and Phantom grasped his head in immense pain as he cried out.

* * *

"Are these guys learning from each other? They seem to get harder to take down each time!" A green blast of energy hit Hawkgirl's wrist as she tried once again to smack the silly smile off the ghost copy with her mace. The blast knocked her off balance long enough for the villain to easily dodge.

Flash yelled up to her while continually dodging blasts and throwing rocks, "I wouldn't be surprised. Maybe they're some kind of hive mind?"

Shayera gritted her teeth and adjusted her grip on the mace handle. "Well, then I hope the original feels THIS!" Hawkgirl threw her arms with all of her strength, using perfect aim to slam a killing blow on her opponent's chest. She never expected what came next, when the fake Phantom transformed into some kind of mushy substance. Her weapon blasted through what may as well have been mist. She blinked in surprise. "What?"

"Nuh, uh, uhhh..." Phantom taunted while morphing back together a few yards away from her. "I think I've learned by now that even touching that thing will put me out of commission. Heh, you're just going to have to try something else."

Not particularly caring for the ghost's attitude, Shayera growled at him. "Then, I guess we'll just have to see how fast you are, because I will have the satisfaction of plowing this through your cold, undead body!"

Phantom frowned. "What am I, a zombie? But you're right, I _might_ not be fast enough." Smiling nastily, he leaned forward, "But I know someone who is!"

Realizing his implications, Shayera took her attention away to check on Flash. She spotted him, but it wasn't good. Apparently, he'd blindly turned a corner and ran into a large pile of that green goo the ghost seemed to be made of. It must have absorbed his friction as he tried to run, because he was stuck in place. A sitting duck.

Unfortunately, she wasn't much better off, because her surprise allowed Phantom to catch her off guard. With a fast punch that could break a brick wall with ease, the specter blew Hawkgirl backward into the wall behind her. He then changed directions and flew towards the helpless Flash.

* * *

Wally was disgusted at first. It was some nasty, sticky stuff he was in. But as he realized he was an open target, and the ghost guy was coming for him, he began to panic. Batman's words came back to him about keeping from getting caught, and the speedster knew it would be bad if his abilities were added to Phantom's own.

Throwing his arms in front of himself, the Flash spun them so fast that the wind picked up from them and pushed against the incoming ghost. Unfortunately, all it did was slow him down, as the ghost had great momentum, power, and his own gust of wind at his back.

Flash put all of his effort into concentrating and pushed his feet into vibrating at a powerful speed. He might not have been able to get the friction to move, yet, but he might have a chance at evaporating the substance he was standing in. When he looked down, he was relieved to see it was working! As he looked back up, however, the scarlet speedster's face fell.

He was out of time, and not going fast enough.

Taking a deep breath, awaiting whatever crazy weird feeling he would get when the ghost took over his body, the Flash tensed up. The ghost was right on top of him, and then...

Nothing.

Wally blinked. Glancing all around, he waited a few moments in silence. Phantom had disappeared. Not an unusual thing, in and of itself, but when he had the upper hand?

Spotting Hawkgirl groggily flying towards him, looking at him in confusion, he shrugged. "I don't know where he is. He was here one moment, then gone the next!"

She landed next to him, took a look around the area, then used the comm unit to contact the rest of the League. "Can anyone tell me why our villain disappeared on us?"

* * *

Unfortunately, of the few items the young Manson girl listed, most were not available in this universe. But her limited knowledge of ectoranium gave Batman some ideas to work with. Among them was a working theory that disrupting the ghost's ectoplasmic energies could play a part in taking him down. There was a small chance this could minutely be done with an electric batarang. Obviously, a physical attack as small-scale as that would not be enough, as ghosts appeared to have _very _fast regenerative capabilities. However, Danny's healing was slowed down with his mind in a coma, so if the physical attack on Phantom's DNA would be complemented by a mental attack, there was a chance it would disorient the ghost enough for him to lose all current control of his abilities.

Having come to this conclusion, Batman rewired an electric batarang with parts of a sonic transmitter to fire a sonic pulse at the same time as its initial attack. Soundlessly edging around the roof, Batman lined up a clear shot to the blabbering ghost. As the Dark Knight let loose, throwing the device towards its mark with perfect accuracy, he couldn't help growling out, "Not for long," in response to Phantom's boasting.

As the ghost flailed about from the crackling energy and disorienting sonics, Green Lantern captured him within a large, green bubble. The space cop held it steady and contained the thrashing Phantom, but Batman knew it was a distraction at best. Their foe was smart, and even if he didn't have the power to break out by force, he could throw John off balance enough to out-will the Lantern's power ring and escape. It didn't matter, because how quickly the ghost could break free would be more data for the detective to use.

As the storms that Phantom had been fueling let up from his lack of focus, Batman faded back into the shadows and continued observing while preparing another batarang. The first attack gave him some necessary data and he could wire the next few to be a bit more effective on the specter. He would not be able to get the amount of power he'd need to take down the villain for good without several hours away from the battle at best, and they could not afford losing any more members from this battle. Already, J'onn and Superman were not able to join, and with Hawkgirl and Flash focused on the last few duplicates on the other side of the world, and Wonder Woman temporarily down, that only left himself and Green Lantern. It wasn't an ideal situation as-is.

Suddenly, the comm sounded. Hawkgirl wanting to know why their enemy vanished. Batman smirked. _That's one problem down._ "We broke the original's concentration. If I'm correct, sensors should indicate no more duplicates exist. Get to Metropolis, we could use assistance with the primary Phantom."

"On it," came the voice on the other end of the line. Batman clicked off and got back to his preparations.

As Batman continued working, he watched Phantom angrily claw at his own chest. The spook finally managed to rip off the batarang, despite the extra surge any time his hands touched it. Giving a snarl of infuriated satisfaction, the spectral entity turned his dangerous eyes on Green Lantern. John poured more power into the ring as Phantom started pounding away on the shield encasing him. The ghost angrily punched the wall between him and the only enemy in sight a few more times before putting both hands together, raising them over his head, then gathering all of his strength as he brought them down _hard!_

Apparently, there was a bit more pent up energy in the fiend than anyone had realized. The green field shimmered and John's face looked in pain as he tried to mentally withstand the blow. This would drain his energy fast, and that's something they couldn't afford right now.

"Lantern," Batman's voice came over the comm unit as Phantom prepared another strike. "Release him. NOW!"

Despite initially starting to question the order, Batman's final command struck the military chord within John's mind. He evaporated the bubble just as Phantom's fists came down, throwing the villain off his balance as his momentum was used against him. Not knowing what Batman's reasoning was, the galactic police officer went back to beating the enemy up, little by little. He could always ask questions later.

And to think, for a moment he thought it was over.

* * *

_It's time._

Danny shivered as he felt those words wash over him, chilling his body to the bone. He had been on the beach, relaxing and watching... the waves. The many girls jumping in them just happened to be there.

_Danny._

Danny nervously struggled to stay relaxed. Whatever was disturbing him was very unwelcome. He's been fighting so much, for so long. He needed this break away from it all.

_You are needed._

He grimaced. That's the last thing he wanted right now. He was needed plenty enough, couldn't he take a break?

_Your friends need you._

Danny frowned at that last statement. Who was the voice talking about? Sam, Valerie, and even Paulina were just fine, jumping in the waves as they played. He'd just seen Tucker head from a nearby beach chair for some refreshments, so he wasn't in danger.

_This is not real._

He knew it was coming. He had known all along that it couldn't be real. But couldn't he...

Suddenly, a beautiful girl appeared in front of him. She wore a dark blue, one-piece bathing suit with a sarong draped from the waist, covering her left leg. She had very light skin and purple hair, with amethyst eyes that reminded him of Sam. Her face was serious, yet sorrowful. She obviously did not wish to disturb him.

"Hello, Danny. My name is Raven." When she spoke, he knew it was her voice that he heard mere moments ago- or had it been longer? It was not loud and echoing around him like before, but was clear and concise. He sat up and turned, placing his feet on the sand, as he looked down guiltily.

"It's hard..." Danny started, refocusing on his friends. They were no longer playing, but sat around together with his family, calling for him to come join them. He hadn't been gone from his universe long, but it felt like years. He'd never been away from home for this long before. Seeing his future self again had brought... other memories to his mind. Clearing his throat, Danny managed to continue. "It's hard to leave. I feel tired." He paused for a moment. "There's so much to do, and I'm not sure how. Sam was right. We've had it easy, but it won't always be that way."

Raven smiled and slowly sat next to Danny. Staring off into the distance, she said, "I'm far from home myself." Danny turned to look at her as she continued, "I'm from another dimension. The specifics aren't important, but I never get to see my mother or my home anymore."

Curious, Danny asked, "What about your dad?"

Raven turned from him and hid the dark look that passed across her face. Danny looked guiltily at the ground again. "I'm sorry."

Raven shrugged. "It's not your fault. The point is that, like you, my life right now is my mission. I'm here to help others, to do what I can." Danny nodded in understanding. His life, even before being called by the Bad Wolf, was ruled by his mission. The girl continued, "Sometimes it's been hard. I have powers that are activated by emotion, and this world involves far more emotion than my own. It's difficult to keep it under control."

Danny couldn't help asking, "How do you deal with it?"

"I don't think I'd be able to, if I didn't have friends to help me. They fight just as hard as I do, but they also take the time to have some fun. They've taught me the importance of balance, that I need to let myself relax a little. I owe them... so very much."

Danny looked over at his dream versions of Sam and Tucker. "I know what you mean."

Raven nodded. "But the mission comes first, Danny. Your friends, your _real_ friends, are out in the real world. And they need your help. You have a responsibility to fulfill, and now that I've helped your body heal, we have to go."

Danny frowned. "How do I know when to relax? Part of my problem was that I ignored Sam when she said we needed to keep going. Wouldn't that mean I need to relax less?"

Raven stood and looked down at him. "I've seen your mind, Danny Fenton. Your friends are a gift. Tucker will always tell you when you're pushing too hard, and Sam will always tell you when it's not enough. Listen to them Danny, they are your compass." Then she smirked, "But if you don't know for sure, duty first."

Danny was still for a moment, digesting what was said. He finally nodded and stood up, facing Raven. "I'm ready," he said.

With a flash of light, the world around them fell back into the recesses of Danny's mind.

* * *

When sleeping, the mind has been known to solve problems that plague it. Sometimes, when thinking of something bothersome while falling asleep, one might wake up with the answer.

When dreaming, there is only access to part of the brain. Once someone wakes up, they are capable of realizing and understanding things not possible in the dream world.

As Raven opened her eyes and pulled back her hands from Danny's head, he jolted awake. Sitting upright in a sweat, he saw and then felt his friends excitedly tackling him into the bed. His mind only partially registered this, as something new was racing through.

After a minute of being hugged to death, Danny put aside his thoughts and smiled. "Hey guys. What'd I miss?"

Sam and Tucker quickly filled him in, telling him that they were having difficulty with Phantom, as he was calling himself. Neither kid could think of anything to use against the ghost, as this world did not contain blood blossoms or ectoranium. Only the Justice League, whom they filled him in on, could stop him, but even they were having trouble. As they finished their tale, though, Danny grinned.

Sam furrowed her eyebrows. "What?"

"The Justice League aren't the only ones who can stop him." Danny's eyes gleamed excitedly. "I know another weakness..."

* * *

Phantom dodged another punch and jabbed his fingers into Wonder Woman's side, hitting a nerve that only caused her to flinch. She hadn't been out for long, and now he was starting to regret not making sure she stayed down. She was certainly more resilient than he gave her credit. Taking advantage of her flinch, Phantom flew upwards and slammed his elbow into the Amazon's face.

Before he could further the advantage, however, he caught sight of green heading towards him. He dove downwards a few feet and flew up behind Diana, putting her in the way of the green energy. Lantern was far more cautious about his attacks, which was both good news and bad news for the ghostly menace. It was fairly easy to avoid them now, with Wonder Woman there, but the annoying galactic policeman had adopted a strategy to wear him down. It was starting to work.

As the energy lanced towards him, Phantom decided to up the game a notch. He couldn't seem to find Batman anymore and he couldn't get close to Green Lantern. Something about that energy disrupted his phasing enough to worry him. Now that Wonder Woman was back, the ghost decided it was time to try another... hostile takeover.

As Diana's fist came around, quicker than he'd expected and nearly clipping him, he phased his body into hers and began his taking over of her mind. It was not nearly as intense as the mental struggle with Superman had been, though she certainly had a strong mind. The difference must have mostly been the alien DNA. Shrugging his, or rather her, shoulders, Phantom turned to the shocked look on Green Lantern's face. The intruding ghost could easily imagine the glowing red eyes John Stewart saw coming from his friend at the moment.

Opening Wonder Woman's mouth to taunt the hero, both were suddenly distracted by the voice coming over the League Members' ear pieces. J'onn J'onzz's calm voice crackled, "What is your status?"

Green Lantern quickly shouted, "Phantom's somehow taken control of Wonder Woman."

Still struggling a little with the mind he was controlling, Phantom decided to respond to that with Diana's voice. "What? J'onn, Phantom's using some kind of control over Green Lantern's body. It's in him!"

Green Lantern ground his teeth before replying, "That's absurd!"

The Martian's voice came back, "Silence! Support is on its way, we will deal with the situation when we get there. Whichever of you is in control of yourself, just hold out a little longer." There was a pause as J'onn took a breath before finishing, "Now where's Batman?"

Wonder Woman and Green Lantern both answered at the same time, "No idea."

It seemed to be enough for the alien. "Martian Manhunter out."

Green Lantern smirked. "Ha! Looks like it doesn't matter."

Phantom shook Diana's head. "Wrong. I've picked up quite a few tricks, you see. Stuff that most ghosts have never had occur to them. I wasn't able to do this with Superman, but with Wonder Woman? You bozos don't stand a chance!"

John raised an eyebrow. "And what is it you plan to do with Wonder Woman?"

Letting out a big, predatory grin, Phantom pulled the Amazon's body in. Bringing her arms and legs into her chest as he bowed her head, bringing her into a fetal-like position, he suddenly cried out in pain. What he was attempting was rare and used a lot of energy. It was completely worth it, however. He screamed as her body expanded back to it's previous position and John's face fell. There, where one Wonder Woman used to be, were three.

* * *

John blinked a few times as he unconsciously backed up. "What in-"

The three Wonder Women laughed loudly. "Do you like? And each one is as powerful as the original! And since I won't tell you which one is the original, you can't take the risk in destroying what may or may not be a copy!"

John's eyes widened. This was actually going to be a problem. He decided a warning to the rest of the League would be the best idea at the moment. Before he could make the call, Phantom beat him to it. "He's duplicated himself! I don't know how-"

Quickly interrupting her, Green Lantern shouted, "Don't listen to her, she's the one who he's duplicated! You've got to get here now!" After that, he frowned. Turning to talk to the fiend overshadowing his friend, John questioned, "What am I worried about? You're the one there's three of!"

Suddenly two of them turned invisible, leaving only one smirking, overshadowed Wonder Woman behind. "I don't need to distract them long. Just long enough."

John sighed. The rest of the League couldn't get here fast enough. Suddenly a voice rang out that he'd not been expecting so soon. One he'd begun to greatly enjoy the sound of.

"All right, which one of you is possessed so I can beat the tar out of you." Hawkgirl hovered above the two fighters, threateningly slapping the palm of her hand with her mace.

Green Lantern smiled, but pointed his finger accusingly at Diana while she did the same to him. He watched as the winged woman frowned, nearly muttering, "Of course it's not that easy."

* * *

Having circled behind Hawkgirl, one of Phantom's Wonder Woman copies smiled sinisterly. This was too easy. Connecting with the minds of the original and the other copy, they all prepared for a simultaneous strike. Hawkgirl and Flash, who had shown up at the same time on the street below, would instantly fall by the two invisible menaces. The attack on the winged alien would distract Green Lantern long enough for him to be struck by the third, and then all three would take out the green pest for good. All that would leave was the Martian and the Dork Knight. Not too bad.

Putting Diana's fists together and raising them above Hawkgirl, Phantom prepared for a massive blow with the princess's inordinate strength. Just as the two invisible foes were about to strike, each had a sonic-electric batarang thrown at their chests. The powerful pulses emitted were damaging to both of the Wonder Women; though, Hawkgirl and Flash were caught in it as well. It was, however, far better than the alternative.

The third Wonder Woman, who first wore a look of shock before allowing it to dissolve into fury, managed to spot the smirking Batman on a rooftop's edge. Forgetting his normally impressive patience, Phantom seethed at the caped crusader. This was becoming very tiresome. He wasn't even sure he had the energy to conjure up another storm, at least not of the same magnitude. This Justice League was not only powerful to begin with, but the irritating fools just kept coming back!

Suddenly, Wonder Woman's earpiece crackled to life, bringing the Martian Manhunter's voice to the ghost. "We have arrived in Metropolis and will be reaching your position within moments."

Phantom snarled in Wonder Woman's body, focusing his energy and anger on Batman. Green Lantern and the recovering Hawkgirl and Flash were frustrating, but Gotham's protector was a true nuisance. "It doesn't matter. You think you've beaten me?" The ghost's lips pulled back in a mix between a smile and a sneer. "Ha! I can just disappear! I could be anyone, anywhere. I could decide to blow up the White House one day, and I'd be gone without a trace by the time you clowns show up!"

Looking at the blank face of Batman was pointless, but the specter could see the fear on Green Lantern's face, if only a trace. Military training was, apparently, not as good as whatever Batman studied. Phantom's face changed into a predatory grin. "You've won nothing! You can't stop me. You don't even know what I am!"

"But I do!" Phantom turned Wonder Woman's body to take a look at where the voice came from, recognizing it immediately. It was once, after all, his own. But as he faced that direction, the black and white blur that was his former self reached the possessed princess. The older Phantom felt the younger's hands push through Wonder Woman's body and expel his spectral form out of her physical one. Unfortunately, the ripping of ghost from Amazon affected both as each screamed from the current fusion of their duplicates, which were themselves screaming before finally fading away. Wonder Woman fell unconscious to the earth, where she was caught by Flash.

Phantom, on the other hand, was not so lucky. Danny took full advantage of his older self's disorientation and returned the pummeling he'd received earlier. As they blasted through the sky and a nearby building, the two Danny Phantoms kicked, punched, and pounded each other with ectoblasts. While most of the Justice League rushed to catch up, with Sam and Tucker still hanging on to J'onn, the ghosts landed on a rooftop. The fight continued, amping up when Phantom got another burst of energy and seemed to dominate Danny for a moment.

* * *

Hawkgirl got just above the fight first. She narrowed her eyes, clenched her teeth, and aimed her mace, preparing for a massive strike against their enemy while he had his back to them. Seeing this from the next building over, Batman knew what she was doing and recalled the consequences of the Green Lantern's redirected attack that took Wonder Woman out. They couldn't take the chance of letting the kid get injured like that, healing ability or not.

Just as she was making her move, Hawkgirl was thrown off her attack by a batarang flying across her vision, inches from her nose. Looking at Batman in frustration, she suddenly heard his voice clearly over the comm. "Do not attack! Phantom has shown himself to be adept at using our attacks against each other. We cannot risk you hitting the boy, especially since he just came out of a coma."

Shayera gritted her teeth. "Well, what are we supposed to do then? Let him fight by himself?"

Batman took no offense to the tone of Hawkgirl's voice, or didn't show anything if he did. "Danny has experience fighting his kind. He can handle himself." The Dark Knight didn't mention that he knew this not only because Phantom was Danny, but that the boy had defeated him before.

Hawkgirl seemed to seethe, probably feeling helpless, Batman surmised. "So what if he's fought ghosts before? He doesn't have to do it alone! That's stupid!"

Batman looked back at the fight, at the determination showing on Danny's face. This was hardly just a physical fight for ghost boy. He had some inner demons to work out. Perhaps this would help him find closure with his past, his future, and himself. "This one is personal." Batman left no room for argument.

The two struggling figures managed to separate themselves, panting from exhaustion on the roof. Phantom had been battling all day, and it was showing. Similarly, Danny's coma had taken a lot out of him, as well. Both stared at each other under the watchful eyes above.

Danny smiled and took a deep breath. "Come on, give up! You know you can't beat us all."

Phantom stood up straight, grimacing a little, but otherwise hiding his pain well. "As I was just explaining, I don't have to win here. Your thermos is busted, as is mine, and there's no other technology in this universe to hold me." He grinned, "I can even allow myself to be captured, because there's nothing you can do to keep me permanently! I can just phase myself through the floor, rest up, and come back with precision strikes that you can't possibly defend against!"

Phantom threw his arms out wide, dramatically getting into his little monologue, "Don't you get it? There's nothing you can do!" Danny was no longer focusing on his doppleganger, silently watching something behind Phantom. The older ghost started laughing maniacally, slightly crazed from the long day. "There's nothing you can hit me with!"

"Wanna bet?" Phantom spun around at the new voice, shocked to see the young electric hero from earlier hovering behind him before landing on the ground. As the ghost opened his mouth to question what the teen was doing here, Static Shock let loose a massive amount of electricity into Phantom. Phantom, expecting it to do no more damage than regular electricity, prepared to fight off the attack the same way he did against Batman's earlier electric batarangs. After all, without sonics to distract him, what's the worst it could do?

Phantom's lack of concern for the attack was deeply regretted. When Danny and Virgil had merely touched hands after first meeting, the unique electricity and ectoplasm had an impressive reaction. Some ectoplasm from Danny's hand destabilized and attached itself to Virgil instead. Now, Static was throwing massive amounts of that same energy at that same ectoplasmic substance, and the ghostly menace felt every bit of it.

Danny hadn't been afraid of a ghostly wail when attacking Phantom because his older self had no energy for it. Neither of them even knew what a ghostly wail _was_ before Phantom's shrieking. As Virgil poured the juice into his attack, the League fell to their perspective roofs and Danny and his friends all did their best to keep from collapsing under the strain of the sound. Windows around them shattered from the stress, little pieces falling to the empty streets. Had Phantom been screaming into any direction but straight up, the damage would have been far worse. As it was, the screeching was terrifying.

It didn't last long in reality, but when Virgil could take no more and grasped his head as he sank to the ground, no one had a clue how much time had passed. As they slowly lifted themselves up, they felt weary and hoped this meant it was over. As each person looked up, though, they were almost shocked at the look of Phantom. His unconscious body bubbled on the roof's surface, little tiny pops that could be heard from several yards away. Much of it was blackened, but with green still being the dominating color. Destabilized ectoplasm. Ghost blood.

The features could still be made out. Phantom still had a face; but it's pale complexion had green lines running through it, like blood vessels bursting at the seams. His entire suit was streaked with green lines and filled with black spots, and his flaming head of 'hair' had died away. Even his teeth seemed to rot, charred and worthless.

Danny looked at the mess in front of him and felt his stomach stiffen. He knew the ghost's healing could cover the most of it, it seemed to have already started, but this was sickening. He knew it was the only way, but...

A slight sound of someone landing behind him caught the ghost boy's attention. Turning around, he saw that J'onn had just dropped off Sam and Tucker. He was almost caught off guard as they pulled him in for a group hug, but he needed it. As the rest of the League, minus Superman, gathered around him in congratulations, taking turns shaking his hand, Danny started to feel pretty good. Happy, even.

Until a small, cold gasp escaped his lungs.

* * *

He barely awoke, feeling a fiery pain lance through his entire body. It was unimaginable, but he had to get through it. All he needed was a few seconds to get his revenge. Maybe that blasted boy would finally become what he was destined to be. It all hinged on one person. All he had to do was kill one person, and the stupid kid would finally man up and do what was necessary. One person who held Danny Phantom from reaching his true potential.

Sam Manson.

Phantom had prepared for a lot of things while recuperating during his stay with the Meta-Breed. Even having no energy. So he _borrowed _something from a nearby pawn shop. Pulling a hidden gun from his insides, rather easy with them leaking all over the place, he took aim at the one person he'd need to kill to send Danny over the edge. Smiling, the ghost pulled the trigger.

* * *

Feeling his ghost sense go off, Danny immediately felt a sense of dread wash over him. He knew what it meant, somehow.

Looking at Flash, who was standing between Danny and Phantom, the ghost boy threw himself forward, throwing the speedster off balance. His eyes widened as he saw Phantom pointing, of all things, a gun at someone to Danny's side. Danny glanced where the gun was aiming, seeing Sam standing there, gazing at a sunset. His mind briefly wondered when she had left him to do that, but the thought was pushed away as realization hit him. Then he heard the shot.

Nothing happened. Sam jerked towards the sound, along with most everyone else. At first, Danny thought she reacted to being hit, but he quickly realized this wasn't the case. He turned to see what had happened and felt his jaw drop. Standing there was a big man in blue and red tights; Superman, he suddenly recalled from Sam and Tuck's earlier briefing. He seemed to have caught the bullet and was now staring down at Phantom... disapprovingly? Seriously?

Danny was still staring in awe at the man in front of him when Superman's deep, powerful voice said, "Only a coward shoots someone in the back." Phantom looked up at him dumbly, before losing the last of his energy he'd gathered together. The menace was officially over as the ghost passed out once more.

Turning to his shocked fellow League members, Superman grinned. "So, did I miss anything?"

Tucker was the first to break the silence with, "Dude, that was awesome!"

Flash rubbed his chin as he stared at Phantom and asked, "Where'd he pull the gun from?"

As Sam rejoined them, she shook her head, "My guess? You don't want to know."

Turning to Superman, Wonder Woman smiled, "Just in time. We were beginning to think you'd miss all the fun."

Hawkgirl snorted, "If you call that fun." When Green Lantern raised an eyebrow at her, she clarified, "I haven't been allowed to hit anything for over an hour." She looked threateningly towards Phantom's body, daring it to wake up again.

Superman chuckled. "I'm just glad nobody was seriously hurt." Danny shook his head at that. Was this guy for real? Did he _see_ the bubbling body behind him? How many crazy days like this do these people have?

Feeling a little out of his depth, Danny took a look at the dark superhero with a bat on his chest. He looked somewhat close to a frown, but the half ghost really couldn't tell for sure. Superman seemed to have the same idea, because he immediately asked him, "What's wrong?"

"You should have been out for another hour. I'll have to rework the formula." Batman abruptly turned around and walked away.

Tucker frowned. "That guy needs to invest in a personality."

Sam, though, was more hesitant to cast judgement. She also found herself moving to catch up to the Dark Knight after a moment, signaling to Danny she'd be a minute. She needed to thank him... and ask about something on her mind since the hotel room.

Danny turned from watching Sam follow...Batman? Something like that. Purposefully not looking in the direction of his alternate future self, the ghost boy gazed out at the sunset. Despite his weak stomach at what he saw, Danny was feeling okay. He couldn't help but see a pale girl's face in his mind's eye as he looked into the horizon. The memory of his dream was still fresh, as were Raven's words in it. Sam and Tucker were his compasses. He needed to remember that.

He also needed to remember to picture girls dressed a _little_ more conservatively when having guests in his dreams.

Danny blushed and turned around, suddenly anxious to join Tucker in meeting the coolest bunch of heros he'd seen. Work was done for now, making it time to let Tucker's compass lead him to fun.

* * *

As Sam rounded the corner of the stairwell entrance on the roof, she found Batman waiting for her. Impressed and slightly intimidated, the goth stood in front of him for a moment, nervously finding her words. After a minute of opening her mouth, Sam finally said, "Thank you."

With absolutely no expression change on his blank face, he replied, "Superman saved you."

Sam rubbed the back of her neck, "I don't mean about that. I mean, yeah, thank you all for everything. You were all awesome back there...but I mean about the hotel...um, maybe not thank you, exactly, but...I... How'd you know?" she finally managed to blurt out.

Batman raised an eyebrow, only somewhat noticeable with the mask. "About?"

Sam frowned and got a more stubborn look on. "You know! How did you know that I wasn't telling you everything? How did you know how to get it out of me? How did you know I'd be _able_ to tell you?" She got a bit embarrassed and looked down as she said, "I wasn't exactly Miss Stable at the time."

"Are you usually stable when discussing your friend?" His face was still blank, not showing any interest or disinterest he might have had in the conversation.

Sam frowned again, but didn't look up. She didn't respond either, which was answer enough. Batman looked at her, recalling how she stood up to Superman the first time he'd seen her. She didn't know who he was, but something about Clark's voice stopped people in their tracks; when he wasn't disguising it for that stupid reporter identity of his. She had fire when she needed it.

Before answering her, Batman thought about what she needed to know. There was something about these kids. Something special. They were going into a very long, very dangerous situation from what he had heard. Sam needed a guidance the other two would not have. Danny may have the powers, but she was the safeguard. The backbone of the group. She would know, more than the others, what would _need_ to be done for the mission. He could see it in her eyes. Now, she just needed to know to trust herself to do it.

As well as knowing a few other things, especially what may be required of her to succeed in their mission. Something none of the other league members could properly accomplish as well as he could. They wouldn't have the stomach for it. Some advice requires someone strong enough to say it... and someone strong enough to hear it.

So he told her.

* * *

"This is amazing!"

Sam and Danny both stood in front of a giant window in the Watchtower, where everyone had gathered to say their goodbyes. Static and Gear were not present, as they had secret identity issues to deal with. Green Lantern was missing for the moment as well, having taken Phantom to get fitted for some heavy duty cuffs.

Staring with his friend - and girlfriend, as he frequently had to remind himself - Danny felt a grin on his face that wiped all his doubts away. A view like this, of Earth, from space... it felt a bit cleansing of the spirit. He had to agree with Sam. Absolutely amazing.

Turning to see what his other friend thought of the view, Danny's eyes found Tucker drooling over the very expensive looking equipment that the Watchtower was made of. Chuckling to himself, he turned back to watching the world spin slowly by. He wanted to enjoy the moment while it lasted.

Unfortunately, the moment ended too soon as Green Lantern returned to the room with a subdued Phantom in tow. John led the ghost to a machine and locked him inside. What looked like some kind of scanner passed over the malicious specter, while the space cop joined the rest of the group.

"It'll scan him for any more little surprises he may have hid inside himself, like that gun he stole from a pawn shop in Dakota." The emerald hero shrugged nonchalantly. "You never know."

Danny shook his head. Not one of them seemed a bit phased by a ghost from another dimension in another universe, that they've never heard of, attacking the world. They must've dealt with a lot of weirdness to be that unaffected, while Danny's own head was spinning from confusion.

But the view outside did help.

Slowly, Danny tuned in to whatever Superman had been saying. "-at's why we decided to make the Watchtower capable of geosynchronous orbit."

Flash took another bite of the ice cream he had retrieved from elsewhere in the orbiting station, before replying with his mouth half full, "Yeah, and so we could time travel if we get it to go fast enough!"

Green Lantern rolled his eyes. "You've been watching too many movies."

Flash gulped down his bite. "No, no, it's true! If something moves around something else fast enough, it goes back in time! Right, Supes?"

Superman raised an eyebrow. "How would I know?"

Flash frowned, desperately wanting to prove his point for some reason. "I bet ya I can make this ice cream disappear through time!"

Everybody watched skeptically as Flash spun around while holding his little bowl of ice cream. He spun faster and faster, causing a mini tornado. It wasn't causing enough wind to do more than make loose clothing flap about, but that added to the effect. Suddenly, he stopped. The ice cream in his bowl was gone, and he grinned.

"See?" After a moment, his smile faltered as he asked, "What's everybody staring at?" Following their gazes, the scarlet speedster saw that the Man of Steel's chest was covered in melted ice cream. Flash rubbed the back of his head sheepishly as almost everyone let loose with some light laughter. Superman was one of the ones not laughing.

Sam, however, did find herself laughing. Something about Flash's antics brought her a light-heartedness she hadn't felt in a while. Though he confused her at first, she realized he somehow managed to appear completely childish and silly while simultaneously being a wise and fairly responsible adult. Kind of like Tucker at times, not that she'd ever admit it.

Sam calmed herself from laughing and got rid of most of the smile on her face, enjoying herself but still trying to be professional. For a moment, the young girl reflected on how much she had grown over the past couple of years, and how necessary it was for her to have done so so very quickly. First it was ghost hunting, and now this? It felt like she'd already left being a teenager behind. The responsibility she found thrust about them as a group seemed overwhelming at times, and she wondered if she could ever go back to being normal. Even her rebellious nature had mellowed considerably from what it had been merely a year or two ago.

Out of the corner of her eye, Sam caught a quick movement a short distance from the rest of the group. Batman ushered her towards him with a slight flick of two of his fingers. She stopped in front of him, looking back to see everyone else laughing at some story Wonder Woman was telling about her confusion with man's world. Focusing back on her newest hero, she watched the Dark Knight pull out a small, black ring and set it in the palm of her outstretched hand. Sam closed her fingers around it immediately and hid it out of sight where it would be safe. She looked up into the white slits covering his eyes as he said quietly, "You know what to do, when the time comes."

Sam nodded, completely sobered with the implications that statement made. Batman returned the nod, giving a dismissive look towards her friends. "It looks like you're leaving soon. Better go say goodbye to everyone while you still have the chance."

She gave a grim smile and nodded, before hurrying back. Somehow, conversations with Batman made it feel like talking unnecessarily was some kind of forbidden taboo.

She'd have to learn that trick for dealing with Tucker.

Batman followed her over to the rest of the group, catching a look from Superman who, somehow, managed to subtly move towards the Gotham hero without anyone noticing. "What was that about?" the Man of Steel asked quietly.

Batman's face was as neutral as always as he responded, "You should keep your ears to yourself, Clark."

Superman shrugged, accepting the answer. He'd learned long ago to trust Batman's judgment. More importantly, he knew not to ask him too many questions.

* * *

Superman still had that uneasy frown he'd had for the last few minutes. "So, you're sure about this?"

Danny nodded, looking over to Phantom. The other ghost had powerful devices that could best be described as high-tech handcuffs covering his hands and part of his arm. He seemed secure enough for now. Looking back at the inspirational alien, Danny said, "Yeah, once we have the portal to the next world up and running, we'll just set it to reroute us to... our boss, you could say." The ghost boy shrugged with the poor description. "We can drop Phantom off with her and continue on our way."

The Man of Steel nodded, somewhat satisfied. These kids had proven that they at least have somewhat of an idea of what they're doing. This boss of theirs seems to have their respect in the power department, if they were so sure she could deal with the menace beside them. Now that everyone had said their goodbyes, there wasn't any reason for the three multiversal travelers to hang around any longer. Still, Superman had quickly grown somewhat fond of Danny. That boy was special.

Tucker finally finished fiddling with the thing, and a stable tear in the space/time continuum opened in front of the group. Danny and Tucker took either side of Phantom while Sam stood behind them. All three turned around directly next to the portal as Superman stepped forward for one quick farewell.

"Good luck with whatever you face out there. And if you ever find yourselves in our world again, remember that you have some friends. You are all extraordinary, and we would have been honored for you to join our team, given the chance. Don't forget to watch each other's back out there! There's nothing you can do alone that you can't do better with help."

As Superman finished, ignoring what was almost a snort from Batman at the end, Danny smiled and turned to Tucker. "Okay, Tuck, do your thing!"

Tucker nodded and went to reroute their course. Before he had a chance to do anything, they all heard a crack. Everyone glanced up to see Phantom's strained face, a mixture between a snarl and a smile as the device containing him started to give way. Apparently, there was a miscalculation as to the limits of the ghost's strength.

Before anyone even knew what was going on, Phantom jerked forward then back, loosening Danny and Tucker's grip on him. He then turned one way, pushing Danny in line with the tear, before spinning around, breaking Danny's grasp and yanking Tucker along until both Danny and Tucker were aligned with the rift. Jumping and sending a powerful kick into Tucker's chest, he landed to see both boys get knocked into the portal. Pulling together all of his strength, Phantom busted out of his restraints, freeing himself once more.

Before he could rejoice in his newfound freedom, Sam slammed shoulder first into his back, gripping him around the waist as they both fell into the rift after Danny and Tucker. The rift closed immediately after, allowing only a small, swiftly thrown device to get through before cutting off the travelers from the world of the Justice League.

* * *

As Phantom and his passenger fell through the rift, he reached behind himself to grab Sam, pulling her forward to face him and wrapping his hand around her throat. "Well, _Samantha_, it would appear I'll get the chance to kill you after all. What do you think of that?"

Instead of trying to answer, however, Sam simply smirked despite not being able to breathe. The ghost snarled, "What are you smiling at?"

Before his captive had a chance to respond, he heard a beeping. As he turned to look at its source, Batman's EMP batarang activated, spiking the villain's body with Static's electricity. With a howl of pain, Phantom let go of Sam and was thrown off the course set by Tucker's PDA. Sam flew towards the next world, watching the disappearance of their enemy into multiverse.

* * *

_Next Time..._

"_Welcome to the Xavier Institute!"_

"_So what are your mutant abilities?"_

"_I'm not actually a mutant."_

"_This child comes from another world. And the power he possesses... I must have him!"_

_Destiny's head was ablaze with her apocalyptic vision. She could only cry out to the emptiness, "Raven... NO!"_


	7. XMen Evolution

**Author's Note:**

Wow... It's been awhile. Exactly a year and a half. Heh... sorry. A big thank you to Lynse, who kept reminding me about this when too much time passed, and for being a beta for this chapter.

On the plus side, I just got my BS degree in Game Design! That's what mainly took up my time for the past year, although I also had a job for awhile on top of that. I had to quit to focus on school. Unfortunately, being done with all that doesn't mean I'll have time now, though I have more than before. I've got to focus on getting a job and everything, which is _not_ easy.

*ahem* But me rambling is not why you're here, is it? On with the show!

Warning: I don't know when I will get to the next chapter! It shouldn't be as long of a wait, but it could be awhile.

Also, **for those of you who may be unfamiliar with one or the other - or both - the Raven (from Teen Titans) mentioned in the last chapter has no connection to the Raven (Mystique) mentioned here.**

* * *

Somewhere in a nondescript suburban neighborhood, a woman stirred a cup of tea. She very calmly watched while events which hadn't yet occurred appeared before her eyes. This was her gift, her curse: the ability of foresight. Clairvoyance. She could see into the future. It came with a price, however, as it was the only thing she could see.

The blind woman took another sip of her tea, briefly considering going for a walk. The idea was squashed the moment she saw what would happen if she did. After another half hour, the gang initiation would be complete and the group will have moved to another location, freeing her to walk uninterrupted. A momentary smile slipped her lips. These moments where she could truly appreciate her ability were rarer now than they once were.

But the smile didn't last long. There was still what was coming, soon, and how very little she could do to change it. Every action the clairvoyant could take would only serve to make the situation a thousand times worse.

It was at times like these that the woman could use the reassurances of her friend. Even the ones she knew to be untrue were a help. Taking another sip, a regret flashed in her mind that Raven would remain unreachable for so long during her periods of time with Erik. Magneto has always been so demanding, and Mystique so very good at being hidden.

Suddenly, the woman known as Destiny choked on her tea as her world turned upside down. Spitting it out and dropping the cup, her hands went to her head as suddenly _everything_ changed. Her mind screamed as she tried to figure out what to make of what was shown to her. _What could possibly have changed the future so much?_

And then she saw.

Dropping her hands from her head and gripping the table, Destiny painfully cried out, "Raven... NO!"

* * *

The tunnel of light cracked open, and a temporary tear in the fabric of reality made way for the three traveling teens. Danny, Tucker, and then Sam, a few moments later, all fell out and into a heap on the grassy ground below the exit of the tunnel between universes. Behind them, the rip in the multiverse closed and was sealed off.

Danny quickly untangled himself in the dimming light, barely noticing the sunset in the distance. He and Tucker managed to get up and help Sam to her feet, as she was slightly shaking and coughing from Phantom's powerful grip. Worried, Danny ducked his head under her arm to hold her up from the side. "Sam, are you all right?"

The goth girl took a moment to take in a few deep breaths before responding, "Yeah, sure. Mom's made me wear dresses that gave less room to breathe." Looking at Danny and forcing a grin, she made it clear she didn't want any more fussing on her behalf. "I'll be fine."

If Danny wanted to call her on it, he didn't get the chance. An explosion interrupted the three as it blew out a section of a wall, further down the building they'd arrived beside. The group dove for cover behind trees and bushes, quickly snapping their attention back to whomever was attacking them.

It didn't take long to notice the battle occurring on the front lawn of what appeared to be a mansion. It was difficult to tell from the side and at their angle. What was really strange about the battle was that it was between two groups of teenagers, with a couple of exceptions, each with some strange power that they were using in the fight.

One boy was blasting ice at his foes, while another was shooting spikes from his arms. There was a guy shooting powerful lasers from some device on his eyes, trying to hit some kind of white-green blur that was knocking fighters off balance as he ran past. The list went on, with many of the fighters getting stranger in appearance, including a couple of blue furred acrobats and a girl that transformed into a dog. Or was that a wolf?

The three inter-dimensional heroes stared in awe at the fight, wondering what to do about it. They couldn't even know which side of the battle was the good guys, if any.

Suddenly, the spike-throwing kid shouted, "Get away from our home!" It made things easier for the travelers, who quickly sided with the group protecting their home from invaders. Danny couldn't help but start to work on labeling which individual fighters were friends and which were foes.

Danny spotted a lanky kid wearing a sneer and a thin layer of dirt, bearing a nasty look and taking aim toward the mansion. He didn't know what exactly the other boy was planning on doing, with his hands held intensely stretched out, but the ghost boy knew the look of someone about to unleash destruction. His deduction was assisted by the crazy stuff already happening in the colorful battle.

As the ghost hunter stepped out to fight, however, he was held back by Sam. A look told him she knew exactly what he was thinking, and she disagreed. "We shouldn't involve ourselves, Danny. This isn't our fight, we've got nothing to do with this, and we've got a task to complete. And we don't want to broadcast you and your ghost powers anymore!"

Danny frowned at her uncharacteristic behavior. "I'm not going to just sit by and do nothing."

Sam bit her lip, looking unsure of herself. However, her response came out steadily. "Whatever's going to happen would have happened if we hadn't come. We're not here to involve ourselves in other worlds' battles; we're here to keep the tears from interrupting the way things should play out. That means no helping out if we can avoid it. We have to stay out of this."

A rumbling sound interrupted them as they felt the ground quake. Danny immediately focused on the dirt-covered guy he'd felt was dangerous, whose increase in concentration seemed to match the movement of the ground. The other members of the fight were too deeply involved to notice. "Where do we draw the line?"

Sam blinked, again looking unsure of herself. After a deep breath, she calmly and unemotionally stated, "If a life is at stake, then we get involved."

Danny looked at her, shot his gaze at the mansion, then the boy, and then looked back at Sam. Finally, he came to a decision. "We don't know how many people are in there; we have to help."

Before Sam could get another word in, Danny flew off, squashing the wonder at his friend's change in attitude as he focused on the bully shaking apart somebody's home. He felt slightly guilty, however, as he distantly heard her shout his name.

* * *

Lance Alvers smirked as he could feel the ground beneath the mansion start to give a little. This had not been as easy as he had expected. The mansion would have been much simpler to take down if that was all there was to the foundations, but Xavier had built a far deeper structure than was visible from the surface. With everything the X-Men had hidden under the mansion, Avalanche would be lucky to bring down even a quarter of the building. But all they needed was a distraction, and that would be enough.

When Mystique had approached them with the opportunity to redeem themselves, all of the Brotherhood members were quick to accept. She and Magneto had come to a truce, looking past recent disagreements, and now some weird-eyed, card-obsessed lackey called Gambit needed a massive distraction while he "borrowed," as he put it, blueprints for a prototype X-Jet integrated with a smaller, newer Cerebro system. At least Mystique knew that the overconfident mutant couldn't do it without the Brotherhood backing him up.

Avalanche's part was important, despite being a misdirection. He had to make the home of these dweebs look broken as they fought, causing them to lose their focus. The earth mover was told there wasn't even a need to destroy more than the very front, but after the scores of losses suffered from their dumb luck, this mutant was looking for a bit of payback.

Lance was pulled out of his memory as he felt the strain from his work. He pushed harder, feeling his grip on the earth wrap around the edges of the ground level base of the X-Men's home. The extra push caused his nose to bleed, but it was worth it to show these idiots what real power was. With all of the do-gooders focused on the other members, and Xavier still unable to return in time thanks to Mystique's planned distraction, no one would know to try and stop him until it was too late.

Unfortunately for Lance, that would have been true if not for an unexpected observer nearby. As Avalanche geared up for his finale, a white gloved fist came out of nowhere from off to the side. The strength behind it was definitely more than human, and the mutant found himself knocked off his feet and flying through the air. He landed harshly, rolling several yards before coming to a stop, face down. He weakly pushed himself off the ground and rubbed his sore jaw as he looked in surprise at a glowing boy who hovered in the air.

After a few moments of staring, Avalanche looked over to the rest of the battle, which had stopped in confusion at the new arrival. Well, except for Wolverine and Mystique; or rather, the fake Sabretooth. They seemed to be content with trying to rip each other to shreds. But everyone else seemed interested in the new mutant in town.

Oddly enough, the floating, glowing, white-haired boy in front of them hovered in what seemed to be embarrassment. He was rubbing the back of his neck, with a bashful look on his cheeks. The kid put a hand up in what looked like a half-wave. "Uh... Hi?"

Nearly a minute passed with almost nobody moving, until the spell keeping the fighters still was broken as Pietro, impatient as ever, dashed over to Scott Summers and bashed him on the head with both hands held together. Cyclops was knocked out, and the rest of Xavier's losers reacted harshly to the unexpected attack.

As Lance tried to get up, a half dozen spikes shot next to him, each one a few inches closer than the last. When one ended up an inch from his leg, he suddenly found himself a little less sure about the X-Men's general policy of not seriously harming their enemies. It was at that moment he heard Mystique's voice give the command to fall back. A command he now found himself happy to comply to. This was _not_ turning out how they had planned!

* * *

After the Brotherhood had left, Jean, and everyone else, turned their attention to the new kid. After knocking out Lance, he had sort of watched the last few minutes of the fight without involving himself, except for when Toad attacked. It was... short-lived, as the stranger had hit him in the air with some sort of beam before Tolansky even got close, knocking him into the Blob, Fred Dukes, on his way out. The glowing boy was now standing on the ground, having floated down afterwards, but still wearing the same sheepish look on him as before.

Jean wondered if he was feeling awkward for joining in a fight with people he didn't know.

As they all approached the stranger, two other kids joined him, standing by his side. The dark boy in the red beret looked indifferent, but the goth-dressed girl crossed her arms and seemed like she was trying not to look defensive of the white-haired kid. Despite being a telekinetic telepath, Jean could guess without reading her mind that the goth was his girlfriend. Or older sister.

Jean took a quick peek into her mind, just to save herself from an awkward moment later on.

After too much time of nobody saying anything, Jean suddenly realized they were being a bit rude to the small group that had just helped save their home. Both sides seemed stuck staring at the other. The redhead stepped forward to introduce herself.

"Um... Hello!" The telepath mentally slapped herself. They were hardly making a good first impression. "Welcome to the Xavier Institute! My name is Jean Grey. Thank you for the help."

The boy who had displayed powers stepped forward cautiously, waving slightly. "Uh... Hi. My name's Danny." He turned to his friends as he introduced them, "And this is Sam and Tucker. We're... new to the area."

Jean raised an eyebrow. Danny's pause gave her reason to think they could be keeping something from them. The telepath found herself having to focus on not reaching out with her mind and finding out what that was. He had just helped them, after all, so she could grant them a little trust.

Of course, she should probably find out what business they had being here in the first place. Jean could leave the question of whether to probe their minds to the professor when he returned.

Deciding that any more information gathering would best be done inside, since it was now dark, Jean asked, "Would you like to join us inside? We can discuss what brings you to our school while we catch our breath from fighting the Brotherhood."

The three teens looked to each other and seemed to have a silent conversation before nodding. Having felt no psychic movement, Jean came to the conclusion they'd known each other long enough to communicate without words. Danny, the obvious leader, replied, "Sure, that sounds like a good idea."

Nodding and putting a kind smile on, Jean turned to shoo the rest of the X-Men inside. It was only then that she fully realized Cyclops was unconscious. "Oh, no! Scott!" She knew he'd gotten hit, but it couldn't take priority during the battle. Frustrated with herself, she panicked. "Hank, get Scott to the medical facility! Kitty, go help him!"

Kurt stepped forward with a hand raised. "Actually, I could probably-"

Again, Jean mentally slapped herself for the oversight. It was one of those days. "Yes, Kurt, thank you. Please get Scott and Hank both down there if you can."

The two went to attend to Cyclops, disappearing with Nightcrawler's signature bamf-ing sound. The three newcomers had wide eyes as they watched them vanish, obviously unused to the sight, but didn't react beyond that. Perhaps they'd had enough exposure to mutants already for some of the novelty to wear off.

As everyone gathered towards the front door of the mansion, each made sure to greet the three strangers who had joined them. Jean took her time going inside to sort through this. She was busy concentrating on telepathically contacting Professor Xavier. He needed to be here to properly deal with not only the guest situation, considering that it _was_ his mansion, but also to help figure out just what the Brotherhood wanted.

* * *

After a whisper from Tucker, once they entered the living room of the mansion, Sam drew attention to herself as she began asking questions about the mansion and answering vaguely when asked about where they were from. While she distracted the large group of super-powered teens – no one saw what happened to the big guy with claws – Tucker pulled Danny to the side and showed him the readouts on the PDA.

Nothing was there.

Danny frowned. "What's this supposed to mean, Tuck?"

Tucker shrugged. "I'm guessing it's out of range. Or maybe there's interference? I can't think of a reason we would be so far away from it, this PDA has a range of about three thousand miles."

Danny felt his mind strain, trying to figure out how far that was. Apparently, his effort showed, because Tucker clarified, "That's about the width of the United States."

"So it's in another country?"

Tucker shrugged again. "Maybe."

Danny sighed and ran a hand through his hair. "I hate it when it's not easy!"

Tucker nodded sagely. "I am right there with you, dude."

"So what do you call your abilities?"

Danny and Tucker jumped as they were surprised by the youngest of their hosts. They were even more surprised to find five of him. Four duplicates of the brown-haired kid stared at them, along with the original, and Danny just knew they were being creepy on purpose. They had the same look of mischief in each set of eyes.

Danny smirked and glanced about to see that only the one boy – and four clones – was looking at him. Feeling satisfied, Danny split himself into four just long enough to hear five copies of the same gasp. With four voices, each already creating a echo-like sound by themselves, the effect of Danny's voice was supernatural as he quietly said, "I call them ghost powers." He then let the three duplicates fade away before being spotted, creating quite a spooky imagery for the now-stunned kid.

Tucker had to keep from laughing as the group of one grinned and walked away, chattering excitedly amongst himself while joining back into a single person, one by one. He and Danny chuckled before going over to rescue Sam from all the questions and answers.

* * *

"So, Danny...?"

Jean watched as Danny blinked, then realized she wanted his last name. He'd faded into thought for the past few minutes, so Jean had discussed things with Sam and Tucker. Well, mostly Sam, who liked slamming a boot down on Tucker's foot when he started to speak. She had a very violent edge to her. Besides, Tucker's eyes were still wandering the room and outside the windows, taking in the size of the professor's mansion from his seat on the couch. As for the rest of the students, they had been dismissed to give their guests some space to breathe.

Jean had to focus back on Danny when she realized he was answering her.

"Fenton. Or Phantom, in this form. Danny Phantom..." The boy raised a hand indicating himself as he talked, pausing as bright rings appeared around him. They traversed over his body, changing the way he looked. Now, instead of a white-haired boy in a black and white jumpsuit, he had black hair in a civilian's outfit of blue jeans and a white t-shirt. On top of that, his glowing green eyes changed to baby blue ones.

Still indicating himself, Danny grinned as he said, "Danny Fenton." Jean suddenly noticed that there had been a slight echo to his voice before, as it was now noticeably absent.

Jean smiled. "That's a very interesting gift you have, Danny Fenton. Although, we've been talking for some time and I still know next to nothing about you and your friends. Sam is very good at deflecting questions and answering just vague enough to not have answered at all."

The girl in question crossed her arms and drew into herself, face heating with embarrassment at being caught like that.

"So," Jean felt the need to shift back on track, "obviously _you're _gifted, Mr. Fenton. Are your friends as well?"

Sam raised an eyebrow. "Tucker and me? Nah, we just tag along while Danny takes down the bad guys. We're practically useless." Tucker jerked around to face her and stared in confusion.

Jean watched her for a moment, forcing herself not to peek inside the girl's head. Even so, the telepath did not have the professor's level of control, and the subconscious desire to know overrode her conscious control. By the way she so brusquely brushed off any idea of her usefulness, Sam wanted to be underestimated for some reason; and yet, she also seemed resistant to the idea of not defending herself, like going unheard was a foreign concept to her.

_Batman said to use people's misconceptions against them, so I've just got to play it cool for everyone. Damsel in distress and all that._ Jean nearly cursed herself for that slip. She hadn't meant to hear that, but Sam was thinking it so loud, it was like she was having difficulty with it.

Though the girl didn't seem to have experience with telepaths, she did control her face fairly well. The brush-off was obvious, but Sam's poker face remained steadily intact, despite her resistance to what she was saying. The teen might have been completely convincing, if not for two things. She was far too quick to downplay herself, a sign of possible lying, and her friends were openly staring at her like idiots.

The dark-clothed girl might as well have said her favorite color was pink.

"I thought you- OW!" Danny jerked his foot away from his friend, looking at her as he rubbed his shoe. "Sam, those boots hurt!"

Tucker smirked. "Now you know how _I_ feel!"

Sam let out an exasperated cry of frustration with the two. She seemed to really want to keep a low profile. Jean didn't know why but decided it was best to make sure they knew that whatever their secrets, they were among friends now.

"It's okay, Sam. You're among friends. There's no reason for you to appear harmless to us."

Sam looked up sharply at that. "What do you mean?"

The telepath blushed, remembering that she'd been looking into Sam's mind without anyone knowing she could. "Well, I kind of accidentally heard you think it."

All three teens' eyes widened. Jean quickly explained, "I didn't mean to; you just thought it so loud. I couldn't help overhearing it."

Danny blurted out in surprise, "You read minds?"

Sam narrowed her eyes. "What exactly did you hear?"

Jean shrugged. "Only something about a man named Batman telling you to have people underestimate you."

Danny and Tucker turned their wide eyes to Sam, who looked nervous for a moment. Suddenly, her face shifted into a less-than-harmless look and Danny and Tucker immediately dropped the subject. Sam looked back at Jean and tried to look harmless again before realizing it was pointless and growing frustrated with herself. Apparently, it was harder to change one's attitude than she'd believed.

Jean was ready to move on. "Listen, it's okay. The Xavier institute is here for mutants with special abilities to come to a place of safety, where they can learn to control their abilities in a fear-free environment where no one is judged."

Danny frowned. "Mutants? Is that what you're called?"

"It doesn't sound very flattering," commented Tucker.

Jean looked confused. "You don't know who we are?"

Danny shook his head. "No, we fell out of a- agh!"

Sam, having just jabbed him in the ribs with her elbow, finished his sentence, "-plane! We fell out of a plane and Danny used his gho- _mutant_ powers to fly us down safely."

Tucker raised his hands up in disbelief as he said, "Oh, come on, Sam! She's a telepath! She can read our minds, remember?" Despite his logic, Sam still looked like she would hit him, so he backed down.

Danny, throwing out all thoughts of that compass talk he'd had with Raven, decided to take control of the situation. After all, if Sam was being unreasonable, that wasn't his problem. Turning to their lovely host, he told their story. "Look, we're from an alternate universe, one that's similar, but a good bit different. We don't have mutants where we come from, but we do have ghosts. Due to a lab accident, I'm half ghost with all their powers, but still alive."

Taking a deep breath, Danny continued. "We've been hired, more or less, to travel the multiverse and fix cracks in the space/time continuum, or something like that. I don't know what Sam's problem is, but I'm sure you guys can understand where we're coming from, right? I mean, you have super powers, so you've probably seen weird stuff, right?"

Jean was still for a minute, trying to absorb everything he'd said. Another universe? Ghosts? Yeah, she's seen weird stuff, but that didn't mean she expected something like that. But a quick skim of their minds, which she felt only slightly guilty for, confirmed their story.

What was she supposed to do with this?

After another moment of silence, she finally felt a voice in her head that put her at ease. "Well, Danny, Sam, and Tucker, if you would just wait here for a few minutes, we'll get this all cleared up. Hopefully, we'll be able to help you... do whatever it is you need to do. Just wait here for a moment." She got up to leave.

"Why?"

Jean Grey turned around before exiting the door. "Because Professor Xavier has just returned."

* * *

Toad groaned as he flopped on the Brotherhood's worn couch, ignoring the spring jabbing into his aching side. His tired voice carried over the tense silence as he whined, "Aww, man, who knew the X-geeks had gotten a new face around there? That blast of his sent me into next week!"

For once, Lance had to agree with the lump of slime. "We had those losers right where we wanted them!" His fist slammed the wall next to where he stood, and everyone felt a small shake from the house around them as the earth quaked a little. "And now they've got a new powerhouse!"

"He didn't look so tough." Blob's comment was snorted out as the immovable mutant plopped onto a flattened armchair that had long lost any cushiness.

"Yeah? Well, you didn't get punched in the face by him! Kid's got a rocket for an arm!"

Blob laughed. "Pff, I'd like t'see him get by me. I'd pummel him into the ground so hard that he'd... uh... y'know... get some kind'a... concussion or somethin'. Brain damage."

Before Lance could snarl a reply, or Toad could throw a witty retort, Mystique was suddenly in the doorway. She was not looking merciful. "He's not the one who was brain damaged out there, was he? That would fall to you lot!"

As everyone gulped and tensed up, readying for whatever anger the shape-shifter was going to throw their way, Pietro zipped in and taunted them at high speed. "Yeah, losers! You all fell faster than Xavier meeting a flight of stairs! Meanwhile, I was busy taking down Summers, and I could'a taken more if you all hadn't forced a hasty retreat."

Mystique nodded. "Pietro _did_ manage to disable a valuable part of their team." She watched as the prideful son of Magneto came to a stop at her side, acting like he was her second in command. He had another think coming.

Mystique grasped the speedster's uniform at the neck and slammed him up against the wall behind her. She snarled at his surprised face as she bit out, "And that almost redeems you for your earlier _mistake_! Or do I need to remind you of how your hot-headed stunt nearly left _me_ without an arm!"

Pietro let out a shuddering, nervous laugh. "Heh, heh... sorry?"

Mystique angrily threw him onto the ground, glaring at him as he rolled twice before zipping to his feet and speeding to the other end of the room. Toad snickered at him from a few feet away, before shutting up at the look given to him.

After several minutes of glaring at everyone in the room, Mystique looked away and calmed herself down. Finally, she looked back at them with a neutral expression on her face. "Well, at least the night was not a total loss. Gambit has the copy of the blueprints that Magneto plans to use in building a counter to the newest jet model of Xavier's. The distraction was enough so Xavier and his students will be none the wiser until it's too late. If not, I think they were just as surprised as us at the new arrival, which will keep them busy for now."

She again glared at the Brotherhood for their failure. "But make no mistake. The next time we go up against the X-Men," her voice lowered until it practically hissed, "you _will_ be prepared!" It then raised to shouting as she announced, "You will all have a new training regime. Tomorrow morning, you will find a list of exercises and tasks posted on your doors, every single one of which must be finished by noon. And you will exceed my expectations, or so help me, I'll hand your carcasses to Magneto myself!"

With that she turned around and headed for the door. "When I return, you will have completed one hundred push-ups and sit-ups each. And I'll know if you haven't."

Toad spoke up in confusion, "Hey, where're you going?"

Mystique snarled. "That new mutant. Something about him was... off. Add that to the fact we know next to nothing about him. I have to investigate what new fool Xavier has conned into his school."

With that, she exited the small building, slamming the door behind her.

* * *

"So, Danny," Professor Charles Xavier began, "I hear that you're not of our world. Do you care to expound on that?"

Hoping he understood the word "expound" correctly, Danny gave a brief summary of their situation. He started with a quick summary of the teens' meeting with Clockwork and his mysterious friend, then skipped over the majority of their adventures by simply saying that they've had experience dealing with a number of varying worlds. Danny briefly wondered how many times he'd have to tell all this before they were done. Whenever that would be.

Charles listened closely to the boy's tale, then asked a few complementary questions to assure he understood the majority of what was told to him. Once he was satisfied, Xavier hesitated momentarily before moving to a subject he disliked. But it had to be done. "Danny, would you give me permission to enter your mind and see what you have told me for myself? I might have a theory about how to help you, but I would first need to know many of the details you may have skipped over from your conversation with this... Clockwork you mentioned."

Danny hesitated briefly. "You're not gonna... I mean, you won't-"

Charles raised a hand, stopping him. "Danny, I promise you, I will not look anywhere you don't want me to. Any memory or thought you feel come up that you don't want me to know about, simply imagine closing a door on it and I will ignore it. I will be sure to give you time to do so with everything I try to pull up."

Danny relaxed and nodded. "Okay, I guess."

The professor readied himself to enter the young man's mind. "Danny, the human mind is a big place. I will need you to guide me to the relevant memories. Do you think you can do that?"

Danny bit his lip. "I can try."

Charles nodded and entered Danny's mind, both sets of eyes glazing over. Less than a minute later, they both snapped out of it. "My. You have had an extraordinary life, from what little I saw."

Danny blinked, shaking his head. "Yeah. I guess. How long were we in there? Sam and Tucker are probably getting worried by now."

"Time passes differently within the mind, Danny. I was in your mind for no more than a minute, if that."

The ghost boy's eyes widened. "Really? That's kind of cool. I think."

"Yes, and I've had a thought on something we could try in order to find the location your missing tear." The professor folded his hands, holding his chin up as he rested his elbows on the arms of his chair. "We can use Cerebro."

At Danny's quizzical look, the professor smiled. "Cerebro is a powerful machine that allows me to connect to minds telepathically from far greater distances than I am normally capable. If anyone has seen the phenomenon you are looking for, I can pick it up on Cerebro. It will take some time, of course, as there must be great care in dealing with the complexity of the human mind, and much more so for many billions of them. Looking for such specific information is quite a task."

Danny had smiled at the explanation of Cerebro, but he now understood the implications of what the professor meant. Searching carefully through billions of minds? This was going to take a _very_ long time. He began to feel dejected.

Feeling Danny's thoughts, the professor chuckled. "Cheer up, Danny. It's not as bad as it sounds. As a matter of fact, there are a number of tricks to speed up the process or even eliminate areas altogether. You do recall that this astronomical event is not within the boundary of America, right? That eliminates a rather large country from the list." Danny nodded, his spirit brightening as he tried to think of other ways to help the process.

Charles steepled his fingers in thought, knowing they may need something more if Cerebro weren't enough. "I can also do some digging. I will put the word out with my contacts for any information regarding energy signatures related to astronomical anomalies, especially anything that may have appeared within Earth's atmosphere. That should be enough information to find what you're looking for without specifying what it is." Xavier lowered his hands back to his wheelchair and looked seriously at Danny. "I believe you may be correct with the threat assessment of one of these rifts falling into the wrong hands."

Danny frowned. "But I didn't say anything about that. Did I?"

The corner of the professor's mouth turned upwards as he replied, "No, Danny. But remember, I _was_ in your mind. Telepathy is an amazing tool for communication, so long as it is used appropriately and not intrusively."

As Danny reached to open the door for his host, he couldn't help but remark, "Heh, it's kind of funny. Sam was being a bit paranoid and said we shouldn't tell anyone about ourselves. I hate to say it, but I'm glad I didn't listen to her."

* * *

Outside the window of Xavier's office, perched on a branch just out of sight from the room below, a raven listened with adept ears to the conversation going on inside. After feeling satisfied with the information gleaned from the eavesdropping, a fluttering of wings took the bird back into the air. Had it been an ordinary bird, there would have been no need for the conversing pair to be worried.

But when in a world of shape-shifters, no thing and no one can be trusted.

Mystique flapped until she found a thermal air current, then rode it as she reflected on what had been said. _So, the boy and his friends come from another world. A world in which there are machines that can turn ordinary humans into mutants, with powerful results. If we could gain access to that world, the mutant race can be extended to the point where humans would be forced to either surrender to us or be annihilated!_

The shape-shifting mutant chuckled at her luck, which came out more as a cackle from the bird's throat. _Magneto will lead us into a golden age of mutants. And because it was my discovery, I will have earned my place back at his side._

As she flew off into the depths of the night, Mystique couldn't help but believe this Danny had given them everything they need to defeat their enemies once and for all.

* * *

While Danny was inside Professor Xavier's office, the students staying at the mansion slowly started to drift back into the living room. As Sam watched their curious glances from her seat on the couch, she rolled her eyes and gave up any hope at staying true to Batman's instructions. She knew Danny was spilling everything to the bald guy in the wheelchair. At least this group didn't seem interested in any villainous activities, or so Sam's instincts told her.

Batman had said to keep the group under a low profile while visiting other worlds. They should not interfere with other cultures, they should not display Danny's capabilities, and they most certainly should not tell anyone what they were doing unless absolutely necessary. A powerful vortex that cuts through universes would draw the wrong kinds of crowds, something she had already known since that world with Kim Possible. If they could deal with the multiversal rips by themselves, it would definitely be for the best. But on the very next world they entered, Danny broke every rule before she even had a chance to tell him about them.

Sam sighed as she suddenly wondered what had caused Batman to become the hero she looked up to. Aside from Danny, of course. Already, she felt like she was disappointing the dark knight, and she had barely known him! Other than that meeting at the hotel and the few hours Batman took her aside and gave her instructions, Sam didn't know anything about the man.

Although, considering all heroes seemed to wear a costume of some sort, one could do a lot worse than a dark, scary bat dressed all in black.

Shaking herself of her thoughts, Sam realized she'd been asked a question. She focused on the blonde girl chewing gum in front of her. "I'm sorry?"

The girl smirked and asked again, "Where'd you get your shoes? They're kinda nice."

Sam couldn't help looking at her shoes, despite knowing full well what they looked like. "Uh, well, they're just the same shoes I always get. My mom drags me shopping and I just look for the heaviest, darkest pair available." The goth gave a half-grin. "Better than the pink, frilly slippers she keeps trying to force on me."

The other girl popped a bubble, staring at her as she worked it back in her mouth. "You do know those are a high quality brand, right? What are you, rich?"

Sam's eyes widened and she sunk a little lower in her seat, crossed arms moving a few inches upward. Her cheeks reddened a bit at the rare occasion of her being embarrassed. "Not really..."

"Oh, wow!" A new voice admiring Sam's shoes made her wanting desperately to get out of there. "You're right, Tabitha, those shoes are _so _stylish."

Sam scowled, but could only mumble out, "No, they're sturdy and practical."

The valley girl frowned and tilted her head. "Hey, cheer up. We're, like, giving you compliments."

"Leave her alone, Kitty." Tucker and Sam followed the laughing voice upwards, somewhat taken off-guard by the blue-furred boy hanging upside-down by his tail on the chandelier. "Can't you see she's scared of you?"

The mutant's smile made it clear he was joking, but Sam couldn't help but rise to the challenge. "I'm not afraid of anyone," she exclaimed hotly. Her words may have been more effective if her body language wasn't still on the defensive, keeping her withdrawn from the kids around her. Tucker was glancing between everybody, looking unsure if he should intervene for Sam or let her handle it.

He didn't have to worry for long. The blue-furred kid let go of the light fixture and fell toward them, teleporting a moment later to land right in front of Sam. "I was only kidding," he said kindly, smiling and holding a hand out to her. "My name is Kurt Wagner, although sometimes I am called Nightcrawler." The German accent in his voice was noticeable, but he was not difficult to understand. "As for my friends, Tabitha and Kitty, I promise that they're just trying to be friendly."

Kitty nodded. "Yeah, we didn't mean to offend you or anything. We just liked your style. Our friend, Rogue, is all about the goth look, but she's laid up in the med center with a twisted ankle."

Sam hesitated, then accepted Kurt's offered handshake. "Sam Manson."

At the official acceptance of the students' offered friendship, Tucker stood up and held a hand out to Kitty, which she accepted. "I'm Tucker Foley, or T.F. as in Too Fine!" He threw in a heavy wink for good measure.

Sam threw her hand on her face as she sighed in exasperation. Kitty giggled at the cheesy line, while Tabitha snorted before chuckling, "Make that up yourself, stud?"

Sam groaned in a weary voice. "Three years ago, and he hasn't let up with it since."

Tucker rubbed his neck in embarrassment while everyone laughed, but Sam knew he was secretly glad the ice was finally breaking with everyone. She just needed to lighten up a bit.

Suddenly, they were all interrupted as the doors to the room Danny had disappeared into opened and their best friend came through, following the Xavier guy. The professor was confined to a wheelchair, which had made addressing him earlier a little awkward, but his personality was quick to put one at ease.

It was somewhat unsurprising to see that Danny seemed happy enough with whatever occurred in there. His eyes met Sam's and he had a measure of contentment that was a little surprising, especially after the intense beating from the ruthless Phantom. He'd been subtly depressed since then, and she had sadly expected it to stay that way a bit longer. If Sam had to guess, that was Danny's look of having unloaded his burdens with another person. Which meant that anything she wanted to keep hidden was out in the open.

Sam sighed in resignation. It was all probably a bad idea anyway, keeping who they were a secret.

As everybody gathered around the head of the household, Professor Xavier addressed them. "Hello, everybody. I would first like to thank everyone here for their efforts in protecting our home, with a special thanks to our new friends who put themselves on the line for people they knew nothing about."

Sam looked down, feeling slightly guilty. She hadn't really thought about it when she tried to stop Danny. It was mostly a reaction from the craziness in the last world. However, there is a certain level of discomfort in being thanked for something you tried to stop.

The professor took no notice and continued with hardly a pause. "I'd also like to welcome them as guests in our home for their visit in our neck of the woods, brief as it may be."

Sam looked up and raised an eyebrow. Neck of the woods?

"They've been hunting for a friend whose location has been lost to them. A lead had brought them all the way to Bayville from their home in Illinois. However, it seems they had just learned it was a dead end. In thanks for their assistance tonight, I have offered to use my contacts to finish their search."

Sam blinked. Either Danny was a much better liar than she gave him credit or this professor was doing a brilliant job of covering for them. And he was going to help their search?

At that moment, the white-haired woman who had arrived with the professor entered the room, having disappeared since they returned home. "Professor, the rooms are adequate for our guests."

"Thank you, Storm." The professor nodded to her before turning his attention back to said guests. "Until we manage to wrap up your search, I insist that the three of you stay here as our guests. Those mutants you helped defend my institute against are a branch of a larger group, and if they take an interest in your appearance, Danny, I fear this may be the safest place for you."

The three looked at each other, silently conversing. Danny eventually answered, "Uh… okay, I guess. I don't really know where we would go, anyway."

"Good. Ms. Munroe will see you to your rooms and I will have sleepwear sent to you shortly. Do not hesitate to request that your current clothing be washed for you to wear tomorrow. You also have free reign of the mansion, so long as you don't intrude on anyone else or the designated restricted areas."

Danny blinked. "Wow. Um, thanks. Usually we have to find some cheap motel and laundromat, but I'm liking this arrangement a lot better!"

One of the students, a dark-haired girl with a yellow jacket, snorted. "Yeah, sure. Until you find the underside of your bed frozen by Bobby, giving you hypothermia during the night." She glared at another student, one with light brown hair.

The second student, Bobby, got defensive. "Like I'm going to do that a third time!"

The petite valley girl, Kitty, crossed her arms. "Fourth, Drake."

Bobby smiled sheepishly and shrugged. "Hey, you got me back!"

Yet another student, a southern guy with blonde hair, spoke up, clearly frustrated. "Yeah, by dropping him in _my_ room! Do you know what it's like to have people randomly drop through _your_ ceiling onto _your_ bed? Nearly gave me a heart attack!"

As the group of mutant students degenerated into fighting, Charles Xavier closed his eyes and frowned in concentration. A moment later, everyone who had been fighting stopped and looked vaguely upwards, not focusing on anything in particular. They then grumbled and headed upstairs, not another word of argument among them.

Daniel, Sam, and Tucker stared with wide eyes. "Wow," Tucker commented. "How'd you pull that off?"

Professor Xavier shrugged and smiled. "I simply told them that the X-Jet needs waxing and all volunteers should remain outside their rooms."

Tucker looked impressed. "That must be pretty handy. But I have a question."

"Yes, it is a real jet; and you will be impressed when you see it at another time. And yes, the kitchen is right through that hallway, there. You may fix yourself a sandwich whenever you wish."

Tucker turned and whispered to Danny. "Okay, telepathy is officially the coolest power ever!"

Sam rolled her eyes and left to get ready for bed. She was certainly feeling ready for it, and she found herself grateful that at least this much went her way today.

* * *

The kitchen was quiet as Danny tentatively stepped inside. He had slept soundly, still healing from injuries sustained by the evil Phantom, and momentarily forgot where he was when he awoke. As he remembered the events of the previous night, the sound of rumbling stomach had prompted a search for food. Although the professor had invited them to help themselves, he was still uncomfortable making himself at home in the large and unnervingly quiet abode.

Glancing around the kitchen revealed only one occupant: the muscular man who had fought with knives sticking out from his hands the night before. He was guzzling down a glass of milk and spearing some eggs from his plate. The absorbed movements as he attacked his food didn't make him seem like he wanted to talk.

All the same, Danny wasn't sure what was what in this kitchen and felt eager to eat.

Before he could do more than open his mouth, however, the hairy guy replied to his unspoken question, "Leftover eggs are in the oven. Bread's on the counter next to the fridge, toaster's few feet away, butter's in between. Drinks are in the fridge, cereal's in the pantry. Need anything else, don't ask me."

Danny stared for a moment, taken aback that the guy hadn't so much as twitched, much less turned his head, since he'd walked in. Considering the man was facing the other direction, for the most part, it was somewhat impressive that he'd known someone had entered, and especially that they needed directions.

"How did-"

"Heard ya. Smelled ya. Even if this nose couldn't identify scents so well, you're also the last to wake."

Danny blinked, then slowly made his way to where he'd been directed for food.

After a few minutes of eating quietly, watching the strange man move on to reading the paper, Danny felt like trying to get a sense of who he was. "So, I don't think I caught your name last night."

"Didn't give it."

Danny rolled his eyes. "Well, yeah, that would be a good reason, I suppose."

The newspaper page turned and the man's gruff voice answered, "Name's Logan. Some folk call me Wolverine."

"What kind of people?" Danny chugged some orange juice.

"Victims."

After a moment, Danny went in search of paper towels to clean up the juice he'd coughed up onto the table. He decided to look for them himself rather than bother the man called Wolverine.

Logan cracked a grin, keeping it out of view.

* * *

Danny looked up and smiled as Sam and Tucker came into the kitchen. He was getting along with Storm, who had come by to check on him. Wolverine had left, which Danny was thankful for, and Ororo had proven an excellent source of information on the school, the city, and even the students, which led to a bit of light gossip.

Danny liked what he was hearing about this place. It sounded like it was doing a lot of good. The professor had made a home for anyone who wanted to learn to control their unusual abilities, especially those who had nowhere else to turn. Some mutants had even been kicked out of their homes, something that was practically unfeasible for the ghost boy. Even his ghost-hunting obsessed parents never loved him any less when they learned his secret.

As Sam sat down and Tucker made his way to the counter, Danny listened while they relayed some of the things they'd learned that morning. The students were either outside playing, preparing for some kind of survival course with Logan – the reason he'd left – or training in something called the Danger Room. They didn't get much information on it, except that the only thing it was preferable to was surviving Logan's run.

A number of the students were also pranksters at times, so they had been repeatedly warned about that. The were countless tales mentioned of tricks and their countered vengeance, which usually led to even more students getting involved and a whole mess being created before one of the adults to bring things under control. Sam used Bobby's name numerous times, each one with a bit of a hiss to it. When Danny asked about that, she only grimaced as Tucker explained that the pavement outside earlier had iced over just enough to have her slip into the Iceman's arms.

She had awarded the icy teen's grin with a sock to his shoulder, one that had him keeping his distance afterwards.

While Danny snickered, he looked up as Tucker sat down with more food, noting without surprise that he was having his second breakfast.

Sam looked over to see her other friend shoveling the leftover of the eggs into his over-sized mouth. "Tucker!"

Tucker paused, cold eggs stuck firmly to his fork. "What? It's not like anyone else was going to eat them."

Sam frowned. "You're going to have stomach problems."

"Ha! The only thing that can break through a Foley's stomach of steel," Tucker beat a fist on his stomach to prove his point, "is the nightmare known as vegetation!" He'd had to amend his original statement after the blood blossom incident.

"Vegetables are good for you! An all-meat diet is not!"

"There's no meat in eggs, so what's your problem?"

"That's not the point!"

"Children, please," Storm's voice drew their attention, "let us not become riled over such trivial matters."

"You'll have to get used to them," Danny drawled, with a mock-exasperated look on his face, "this is a never-ending argument."

Tucker and Sam narrowed their eyes at him. Before either could respond, they all heard the professor request their presence at Cerebro. Storm agreed to guide them.

Ororo smiled pleasantly and stood, indicating the main exit from the kitchen. "If you would please follow me."

* * *

The professor sighed and removed the helmet from his head, setting it back down on Cerebro's console. "I'm sorry I couldn't be of more help with this."

Danny nodded. "It's okay, you said you've got other ways of searching as well."

"Yes, that's true. And there may yet be something to be found with this, but I'm afraid it will take time."

Sam pulled Tucker away from the ledge of the walkway they were on. Cerebro was centered in a vast room, which was in a perfect spherical shape except for the door and walkway leading to the center: a platform on which the Cerebro machine sat. Tucker was admiring the fall down to the ground, while Sam was keeping him from experiencing it. They had been, of course, arguing the entire time.

Tucker shrugged her off. "I'll be fine."

Sam rolled her eyes. "Whatever. I'm just glad you haven't gone gassy from those eggs."

"I told you, stomach of steel!"

Professor Xavier, meanwhile, just finished using Cerebro to connect to the parts of their minds dealing with memories of anything related to the rifts. He had been trying to use them to help search for a similar pattern of memory elsewhere in the world. So far, there had been no luck.

"Perhaps we should wait to hear from a few colleagues I'm expecting word from today. If there is nothing, I shall try with Cerebro again tomorrow."

Danny nodded, not feeling terribly discouraged, but still a bit down.

"In the meantime, would you care to accompany me in watching the students run a mission simulation?" The professor started his chair out the overly large door into the shiny hallways, where he rolled purposefully toward wherever he planned to take them.

"A mission simulation?"

Xavier nodded, stopping and turning to look at them fully as then he spoke. "Yes, a large part of what we do here is to train mutants to handle any conceivable situation that may appear in the future. Working as a team, they must learn to fight, defend, rescue, and accomplish any number of other necessary skills to preserve life and keep the peace between human and mutant kind."

Tucker grinned. "Did you rehearse that?"

Sam frowned at him.

"It… helps to have a well-used line handy for questions." The professor smiled, then grew more serious as he continued. "And once word of mutants got out to the world, questions came in plenty. People had a hard time trusting those who were not only different, but also seemed to be preparing for a war against them. If we had been any slower in responding to our reveal, things may have taken a very different turn."

The atmosphere grew more solemn with that, and the three followed Professor X to watch the training students.

Until Tucker broke off for a panicked run to the restroom.

* * *

Inside the control room that overlooked the Danger Room, Danny and Sam watched the remainder of the current group's simulation. It was some sort of rescue mission inside a cavern. Long stalactites covered the ceiling, and sharp falls into deep pits adorned the floor. Their main obstacles to rescuing Jean Grey, who was faking unconsciousness, included the very large kid and the earth-shaker from the battle the night before, as well as a metal skinned guy and a weird card-thrower that liked to attack from the shadows.

The guy throwing glowing card bombs had something off with his eye color, with a red iris and everything else black. He also carried a glowing staff and was very graceful in his few one-on-one attacks. He didn't seem to stick around for long at any point, however, and preferred darting in and out of hiding like a thief. In contrast, his friend in metal was doing a great job taking on three of the five students with his brute force approach.

The professor had to explain that the enemies weren't the real people but holographic representations, as was the environment. Danny and Sam were even more interested after that, and found themselves constantly on the lookout for some kind of tell that this was all fake, like a shimmering or something. Surprisingly, despite being holograms, the enemy attacks seemed to actually affect the real students. Real injuries could be sustained if they were not careful, which was why there was always a controller in the control room while a simulation was running. Today's was Beast, who apparently enjoyed quoting Shakespeare as he watched.

Down below, Kitty, Spike, and Jubilee, the girl with the yellow coat, were stuck with the metal guy, although Jubilee was frequently distracted by her attempts to locate the card guy. Her powers were some kind of fireworks ability that didn't have much of an effect on metal man, so she tried lighting up shadows to take down the other foe. Somehow, that didn't seem to do much good, either. He was fast.

A little further off in the room, Blob was trying fruitlessly to grab Nightcrawler. The professor mentioned to Danny and Sam that the mission started with Blob being told to sit on Jean Grey to make sure no one could save her. A lot of points are lost for the simulation if he makes it to her, so Nightcrawler took the job of distraction. Teleporting in and out around the massive teen, Nightcrawler kept him infuriated enough to forget his original goal.

Which left the duplicating kid and Lance, AKA Avalanche, according to the professor. Apparently, his ability to bring the whole place down made him the most significant threat. Although, he was just as able to focus his ability and drop giant stalactites down on the fighters from above. Jamie, the multiplying kid, had about seven copies holding Lance down and covering his eyes. While he didn't need his eyes to use his powers, he did need them to aim. Without them, he could hit a teammate, at best. At worst, his difficult-to-control powers could bring the ceiling down on all of them, himself included.

As they watched from above, with the professor occasionally filling in more names, Danny wondered what it would be like to have all of this available for him to train with. It certainly would've been handy his first year of ghost-hunting, and he probably still had a ton he could learn from something this advanced. He could set up a fight with a fake Skulker, Ember, Spectra, and Bertrand - and the real Box Ghost would probably join in at some point just by chance - that would be in a controlled environment where he could really let loose.

He broke out of his musing when Jubilee finally found Gambit, the card guy. She gave full chase and winged him, but he returned the favor with a dozen exploding cards tossed in the air. Although slightly blinded, she covered her eyes with one arm and shot off a few fireworks with the other, in the general direction of the dark-eyed villain.

Suddenly, the battle took a turn. A disastrous one. One of Jubilee's blind shots landed on Lance, who howled in pain and started twisting in Jamie's many grips. Jamie became appropriately worried when he realized the level of agitation Avalanche had gained. He nervously shouted, "Uh, guys! Help!"

Nobody heard, or cared, about his cry, until a few moments after the room had begun shaking more and more violently. Lance was practically snarling, having lost all sense in his frustration, and was lashing out any way he knew how. And with bound arms and legs, that left only his power.

With walls cracking and the ceiling giving way, everyone turned their attention to Jamie and Lance. But it was too late, as Jean had been near a steep hole to begin with, and as it cracked through the nearby ground to become larger, a crevice just large enough for her body opened up below her, spelling the end of the program.

Beast had swiftly stopped the program before anything else could happen, and Danny felt himself relax when he realized Jean had not actually fallen.

"She was awake the whole time, you know," the blue-furred beast said, looking to Danny and Sam and smiling. Danny noticed he was comforting them, seeing as their faces were etched with worry. He felt embarrassed for having gotten caught up in the fight and forgetting there was no real danger. Beast continued explaining, "She used her telekinetic abilities to both keep anything from falling on her and keep herself from falling. Besides," he winked, "it's only three feet to the ground."

Danny nodded and looked back at where the students gathered at the center of the now-fading cavern. It was being replaced by a very large, metallic room that was now empty of everything but them. Looking at the students' faces, though, showed they knew that they had messed up in a big way.

Professor Xavier pulled a microphone toward him. "I must admit to being very disappointed in your performance. I would like to meet with all of you later on to discuss how you mishandled a volatile situation."

There were various responses, but the majority was a nod and mumble about being sorry.

The professor again spoke through the microphone. "Now, if you will all clear the room, I would like to give our guest a chance to showcase his capabilities for us."

Danny jerked and felt himself spin to stare at the professor in surprise.

Xavier turned towards him and smiled. "Well, Danny, would you like to try our Danger Room?"

Danny glanced at Sam. She shrugged, indicating she had nothing against it, and he looked back at the professor. "Sounds great!"

* * *

In ghost mode, Danny stood in the enormous room while waiting nervously for whatever settings were to be implemented. From what he could tell, this place could make it seem like he'd been sent anywhere against anyone. He probably wouldn't even recognize his enemies, or know what fantastic powers they were capable of using against him.

After a few minutes, the professor's voice came over the speakers. "We're going to leave the environment settings in the Danger Room for now, Danny, though that may change as we go along. Furthermore, as this is a test of your abilities, we shall use the more traditional equipment first, eventually working up to holographic enemies."

Danny nodded slowly, then shouted. "O-okay!"

After a moment of silence, a giant claw came out of the ground and sprang towards him. Danny yelped and dodged to the side, coming out in a roll that put him crouched on his feet. As the claw came back toward him, a turret rose out of the ground and fired a low-powered shot that stung the side of his arm. Caught off-guard, Danny no longer had the time or balance to avoid the claw.

Luckily, this was where intangibility came in handy. Danny allowed the metal arm to pass through him, as well as the next shot fired, then used an ecto-blast to fry the turret.

It was feeling a bit easy, but then the floor was dropped out underneath him. Danny fell a few feet before catching himself with flight, hovering over a red floor that might have been game over. He quickly flew back out and landed on the ground, slightly shaken from the surprise but ready for more.

Before he had a chance to catch his breath, the far side of the room had a spinning, circular platform raised from the ground, with four barrels in its sides. As it was turning, the four barrels began spewing flames that burst out in a straight line that almost reached the walls. Another platform, closer than that one but still far away, rose from the ground and repeated the actions of the first one. By the time the third came up, even closer, Danny got the idea. The floor would now be a very dangerous place, and he did not want to risk intangibility in a furnace.

Even intangible, it was still hot!

Danny flew up near the roof, getting a better view of the room as more flame turrets rose and finished off the floor restriction. If he needed to land for a few minutes, he could always stand on the flame turrets themselves. But he didn't want to stay that close to the hazard for long.

While Danny was contemplating this, he had not noticed that the ceiling was hardly off limits for traps. Behind and above, a large net that was shaped like a fly-swatter swooped down in an arc and captured Danny, lifting him up and pinning him to the ceiling. Before he could recover, Danny felt an electric current run through the wires and shock his system. It was very low level, low enough that he was able to use his abnormal strength to move, however he found his phasing ability to be interrupted. As he tried to push through the net, the shock increased and he lost all the focus necessary to follow through.

While Danny felt himself steadily losing strength, he realized that he would have to find another way out of this. Trying to keep a conscious grip on reality, he pulled himself through the pain and electricity by grabbing the wires and crawling along his back on the ceiling. Eventually, and just as he wondered if he could take anymore, Danny made it to the nearest side and held onto the metal edge. With teeth grinding and muscles straining, he pushed his fingers between the ceiling and the rod holding the net, then pulled like his life depended on it, because it sure felt like it did.

Danny started groaning, then growling with the strain. This was not like any training he had been through before and felt a lot more like he was going against a combination of Skulker and Technus, but without the snappy comebacks and endangered gorillas. Or the mullet.

Danny shook his head to throw his wandering mind back to the task at hand. He _had_ to get through this! He could hardly remember why, at this point, but it was in his mind that he had to get out of this.

With another growl and a snarl with teeth, Danny pushed the rod away from the wall another few inches, which was just enough for him to squeeze through. The net smashed shut behind him, just grazing his foot as it passed through. He was out of breath, and felt himself vaguely falling, having a difficult time keeping himself up in the air. That trap felt like it had last hours, or days, and Danny looked around and had to refresh his memory of what was going on.

After a moment of watching the fire spinning on the floor, it started coming back to him and he looked upwards in search of the control room. Through it, he could see Sam being physically restrained as she was obviously hurling some nasty insults at the people who put him in such pain and danger. While Danny certainly felt overwhelmed with the latest trap, he supposed this type of training was exactly what he needed. Something to really test him. He waved to Sam and gave an okay sign with his hand. This relaxed her somewhat, but he could tell she was not happy.

Danny wanted to float down and rest on one of the flamethrowers below, but with Sam freaking out about him, he suddenly felt the need to show no weakness. So he hovered in the air in the middle of the room, waiting for whatever came next.

Apparently, there was some pity taken on him after his last escape. What came next was a simple glob of green goo that covered his face. Toad, the green kid from the night before, was hanging on the wall.

Danny phased and let the green stuff fall to the floor. He gasped and held his hand to his face. Perhaps it was not pity but a new form of torture. That stuff reeked!

As Toad fired more goop, the smell of it got to him as it passed by, even while he was intangible. Danny felt himself choking and resolved to get rid of the pest, ASAP. Holding his breath and releasing his intangibility, he drew closer and fired ecto-blasts at a constant stream, trying to knock his opponent off the wall. Unexpectedly, Toad was plenty fast enough to avoid being hit, and Danny found himself trying to predict his moves so he could blindside the slimy mutant.

What the ghost boy was not expecting was being blindsided himself. A giant eagle dive-bombed him and Danny fell towards the hot surface of the ground before knowing what hit him. He slowed his descent in time and flew back up, keeping an eye out. From nowhere, a hawk flew at him from behind and jabbed his shoulders. It wasn't enough to draw blood, but it felt like it should have, leaving Danny to wonder if there were some safeties in this program after all.

As another bird came at him, Danny dove to the side out of reach, expecting for it to harmlessly pass. Instead, the bird's leg grew several feet and caught the ghost in the gut. Danny yelped in pain and jerked away, keeping the bird in sight. As it circled away from him, however, it disappeared from view.

Danny frowned and kept a paranoid lookout all around himself, shifting into phased mode both to avoid another attack and keep from getting hit by the newest assault of smelly goo. He could ignore the smell for now, because as soon as he started to run out of energy, he'd need to phase back to being tangible, which would leave him open for attack.

Danny caught a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye and struck out, flying as fast as he could after it. Obviously surprised, whatever the bird was doing to hide itself was dropped while it flew away from the irate half-ghost. Just as Danny could almost reach it, however, the bird jerked around and turned into a large dragon, easily four times the height of Danny. While it was no Aragon, it didn't look safe to be around, either.

Eyes wide, Danny turned around and flew away for a safer spot to view the newest form of his opponent. But it wouldn't be that easy, as the chase had resumed with the tables turned as the dragon neared Danny. The two flew through the air, twisting and turning as each tried to outfly the other. Danny was faster, but the size of the dragon gave it greater distance with less effort, and Danny had really begun feeling the effort. He was still feeling worn from that net trap.

As Danny realized he wouldn't be able to last much longer, he finally remembered he was supposed to think in these fights. He began trying to work out what kind of weaknesses a giant dragon had. Were there any weak spots? Anything they couldn't do? What would Vlad do?

Danny shuddered at his last thought. He didn't like the idea of using Vlad as a role model.

Then Danny's mind started racing. He hated to admit it, but he learned a lot from Vlad. And one of the lessons Vlad arrogantly tried to teach him, using some kind of a chess metaphor, was that a foe's strength was also his weakness.

Danny desperately searched the battlefield, until he realized he had an advantage staring him in the face. The end of the fire from the flamethrowers came too close to the wall and rotated too quickly for the dragon to pass through. They were also several feet off the ground, plenty of room for him to move around. While he could never rest and relax in such a hot area, he could certainly glide under the room-wide net and have a safety area where he could strike against the dragon without being seen.

Danny quickly turned intangible and shot through an opening in the flames, disappearing underneath. The dragon stopped and hovered overhead, roaring loudly.

Danny stayed underneath, having turned invisible as well as intangible. It was certainly draining, but having his feet on the ground and waiting for the dragon to either shrink or turn its back to him in search made it more bearable.

After a moment, the creature grew impatient and turned into a hawk once more.

Before waiting to see if it would dive-bomb under the flames or hang out around the ceiling, Danny burst forth from the floor at a dazzling speed and gave the hawk a massive, ecto-charged punch that sent it reeling through the air. Danny grinned in relief, feeling that its collapse into the far wall had put it out.

And then the side of his head was hit with smelly goop.

As he hovered there, unmoving and feeling a tickling sensation in his ear, he turned toward Toad and let a very imposing glow envelop his hand. He was feeling pretty sure this simulation would end as soon as he blew the wall out from the miserable green pest crawling along it.

Before he got the chance to let loose with the last of his energy, however, he was shocked by the returning sound of the dragon. Turning swiftly, Danny had just enough time to go intangible before it passed through him. Immediately after, however, the energy dissipated from his hand and he lost a good deal of height, falling slightly toward the floor. The intangibility was wearing him out, and he'd have to be careful.

As he saw the dragon come at him again, Danny realized his only option was to run, or rather, fly. Taking off through the air once more, the chase resumed between him and the shape-shifter, only now the latter was furious. This time when Danny dove through the flames, he nearly choked at the sight of the dragon turning into a flying shark and following him. That was _not_ expected.

The winged shark bared its many rows of jagged teeth and was quite literally the most fear-inducing thing Danny had ever seen. Even going at his highest speed, the shark managed to keep up with him and got him sweating from more than just the flames surrounding them. The two of them shot up through the fiery floor and Danny felt himself losing steam. Flying generally used less energy than walking, but right now his entire body felt like crying out to stop this stupid simulation, which had stopped feeling like a simulation some time ago.

And then the smelly goop hit the side of his head.

They had flown too close to Toad, and the other had gotten a nice shot in. Danny started swatting at the side of his head in frustration, trying to get it off. It was not easy to get off without going intangible, which he couldn't do, and it was terribly restricting.

Danny blinked with a sudden thought. It was with the barest of remaining brainpower that the ghost boy came up with one last desperate gamble.

Putting all of his effort into this last chance, Danny started diving in towards and then away from Toad, always fast enough that the other couldn't quite get his shot. This was driving Toad nuts, as he kept preparing an attack and then having to hold off on it. Each time, the gunk he had in his mouth got bigger, and he was just waiting to unleash the full load onto the phantom weaving about in front of him.

Just as Danny was hoping. Taking one last spin around the room, Danny let the shark get closer and closer. Finally, just as the mouth was open and less than a foot away, which was very frightening, Danny dove straight for Toad. Said foe saw him coming from across the room and prepared for the attack.

Danny was beyond nervous, and found himself praying beneath his breath for it to go like he planned. He got nearer and nearer to his destination, but Toad hadn't shot at him yet. Just when Danny was about to seriously lose hope that he'd come out of this in one piece, in a flash, Toad finally unleashed his load of mucus in a stunning projectile of nauseating goo.

Expecting it, Danny used every last ounce of energy to twist out of the way and pull himself up, away from the flame floor.

The shape-shifter, however, had not been expecting it. The entire mess flooded over the shark, which lost control and smashed into Toad enough to knock the both of them unconscious.

Danny was surprised to see the winged shark turn into a blue woman with red hair. He might have considered her pretty, if not for her encasement in the most disgusting substance he'd ever encountered.

Which he now realized he'd have to encounter again, as both she and Toad fell towards the fire below.

Danny was barely staying in midair as it was. He didn't have the strength for another burst of speed, especially one that would allow him to reach the others in time. So, he let reflex and instinct guide him as he threw everything he had in an attempt to save them from burning below.

In this adrenaline-fueled state, it didn't even occur to him that they were holograms in a safety-netted simulation.

Danny closed his eyes and reached into himself for a power he rarely used. Time slowed as he felt a cold wind burst from his chest in a deep gasp, and then he threw his arms out and unleashed a devastating fury of cold. It poured from him as if he'd simply unlocked a door, and it blew across the fiery field below and created an icy, smooth surface that was perfectly slanted to allow both villains to survive the fall and hit the ground rolling. Upon hitting the bottom, their bodies stilled and all was silent.

The silence lasted for several minutes. Then the program faded. Toad and the blue girl disappeared. Half the turrets lowered, the other half too frozen to do so. Even the accursed net disappeared. All that was left in the room when Danny slowly landed was a field of ice, plus captured turrets, and some blast marks on the wall.

Danny let himself turn human and dropped to a knee in exhaustion. He heard the futuristic door to the room open and turned to look at more than a dozen faces staring at him, impressed beyond words. He noticed Tucker had joined them at some point, and both he and Sam looked very proud, even if Sam was getting over her fuming.

Professor Xavier rolled forward, smiling. "Well done, Danny Phantom. I think I speak for us all when I say well done, Danny Fenton."

Danny felt some heat go to his cheeks, but smiled in return.

* * *

Charles Xavier watched as several of his students, and Sam and Tucker, played mutant tag in the outside lawn of the backyard. He, too, had found himself in the great outdoors, though no further than the smooth tile of the patio. Being confined to a wheelchair made a walk through the woods a distant dream, but he was content with his place.

He found his best source of happiness was watching the youth enjoy themselves. Most of them had come here because they had nowhere else to feel safe. It was satisfying to see them explore their special gifts in such a carefree environment, among friends who understood their hardships.

Xavier gave an amused chuckle when Sam's Wrist Ray shot one of Tabitha's "time bombs" only a moment after it left her hand, startling the explosive mutant with her own medicine. There had been an initial concern among the students that Sam and Tucker would not be able to keep up with them. As it turned out, the two had a few gadgets that they were well-versed in using. It was more than enough to level the playing field.

Behind him, the mutant professor heard someone approaching and turned to greet Danny, whom he had called for. Frowning, Xavier watched as Bobby Drake stopped a few feet away, smiling like an idiot. "You called for me?"

The telepath rubbed his temples. "Danny..." Charles looked back up and continued, ignoring the boy's mischief, "I'd like to talk to you in private."

A moment later, Danny Phantom appeared a few feet to Bobby's left, phasing away from his overshadowed puppet. Bobby blinked and shook his head, before turning a growl towards the vengeful spirit beside him. He raised a suddenly icy fist.

"Bobby." Charles' voice was even more authoritative with Bobby, as he was Xavier's responsibility and the one who most likely brought it on himself.

The hot-headed Iceman got the idea and left, grumbling over his shoulder.

Danny had a mixture of sorrow and a smirk on his face, which made for a strange combination. "Sorry about that." And he was, too, most likely. No doubt, the young Mr. Drake had again tried to prove he had the better ice capabilities. After Danny's demonstration in the Danger Room nearly a week ago, Bobby had been insufferable in his attempts to show that he was the best "Master of Cold," as he had phrased it. It also hadn't helped the mutant's case to flirt with Sam, even though she had made it clear what she would do to him if he continued.

Regardless, there was something important to discuss.

"We received a hit on our search for your missing anomaly." As Xavier spoke, Danny jerked to attention. "There have been several reports of strange spatial events occurring in a park here in Bayville. It fits your description for what signs to expect."

Surprised, Danny rubbed the back of his head as he hesitantly said, "Oh… well, that's… good." At the professor's raised eyebrow, Danny clarified, "I've just been enjoying myself here, is all. I'm going to miss this place and all the… interesting students when we're back on the move. Plus the comfort of staying in a mansion."

Charles smiled, but before he could say anything, Danny beat him to it. Raising his hands to let the telepath know he wasn't done, Danny quickly amended, "But, I know my responsibility is for the good of the multiverse and yada yada. I'm not going to flake out on it or anything, I just liked the opportunity to rest for a bit."

The professor nodded his head. "Danny, it is a rare person who is as attuned to their responsibilities as you are. I see nothing but great things for you, despite the hardships you'll find yourself facing. If you ever find yourself in need of anything at all, our door is always open."

Danny's face lit up in a glow at Professor Xavier's praise. He rubbed his neck in embarrassment before thrusting his hand out to shake that of the wheelchair-bound man whom he'd come to respect so much. Xavier smiled and accepted the handshake.

"Is there anything you need before you go? The park is not far from here, so you can make it on your own, but I'm sure anyone here would gladly accompany you to your destination." As he asked, the two of them turned and headed into the mansion. They'd let the others run off their energy before calling them in for a rest before leaving. Nightfall would likely be the best departure time from the world, with the darkness and fewer people around to witness it.

Danny shook his head. "No, thanks. We've taken care of ourselves this long, and I'd rather not bring anyone else into it. We should just say our goodbyes and get a move on." He sighed a little, with obvious regret but acceptance.

As Danny walked and the professor rolled, the ghost boy couldn't help but ask, "So, do you think we should take Bobby and lose him in another world?"

"Now, Danny, don't you think that's a bit _cold_-hearted?"

* * *

While Sam was busy organizing the supplies graciously offered to them, Tucker pulled Danny aside from all the goodbyes he'd been making. He needed a little more detail than the watered-down version the professor told the group in front of the students, considering he couldn't mention what the trio were actually looking for.

"So, what did he find?" Tucker kept his voice low but was anxious enough that Danny pulled him further to the side. He didn't want anyone getting too interested in listening in. In this place, even the walls had ears, when Kitty was nearby. She had much better control over her phasing ability than Danny.

Danny quickly explained what he'd been told, about the sightings in a nearby park that matched what they were looking for.

The explanation didn't seem to satisfy his friend, however, because he responded with a frown, murmuring, "That's weird. If it's so close, why isn't anything being picked up on the sensors?"

Danny shrugged. "I don't know, maybe something was blocking the signal?"

Tucker thought about it but didn't look convinced. "I don't know, something doesn't feel righ-"

"What are you guys talking about?"

Tucker jumped at the sound of Rogue, the X-Men's resident goth who had sort of gotten along pretty well with Sam, but not as well as the other students had expected. Apparently, their fashion wasn't enough for them to just click that fast. It probably didn't help that she'd been avoiding Danny like the plague.

During the first day that Rogue had been up on her feet and introduced to everyone, a small argument – nobody knew what about – broke out between Sunspot and Berzerker, fueled on by Tabitha. Iceman decided to cool things down, literally, and all three ended up going after him. The end result was Sunspot swinging a punch at an ice wall that went through to Danny, who was on the other side and investigating why a wall of ice had suddenly appeared. Rogue witnessed Danny's side turn into ectoplasmic goop at the misdirected attack, but he shrugged it off as a not uncommon side-effect of his powers. Since then, however, Rogue preferred the side of the room opposite to him.

It was explained to them the tragedy of Rogue's power, that she would absorb the memories and abilities of anyone she touched. Although the three felt bad for her, they were all too happy to give her the space. Which was why it was strange for her to be here like this.

Danny blanked for a moment, trying to come up with something to say. For once, he was grateful for Tucker's quick mouth.

"We've been talking about all the fine cuties here we'd be missing on the road again."

Okay, not that grateful. Luckily, Rogue and them had gotten to know each other enough from afar for her to ignore Mr. Too Fine.

"Yeah, whatever." Rogue waved his comment away like a fly had come near. "Look, I just want to... make sure you didn't take my behavior the past week the wrong way. I'm not good at apologies," she still had not looked at them, and continued to not do so, clearly feeling awful about the whole thing, "and I don't feel I need to, but I just wanted you to know that... it's nothing personal." She was definitely not very good at this.

Danny smiled at her attempt, anyway. "No offense taken. We understand, it's got to be quite a burden not being able to touch people."

Rogue sighed and smiled half-heartedly, still looking guilty.

Danny put his hand forward. Rogue looked at it for a moment, before carefully shaking it with her gloved hand. She rolled her eyes as she did so, finding the gesture cliché, but seemed a little brighter after it anyway.

As she left, the two boys were approached by Scott and Jean, the former of which was leaning against the other. Cyclops had been laid up from his head injury for the past week and had only gotten out that day. Pietro's attack managed a lucky shot on a nerve. Scott had made it obvious that he was sorry for missing out on having guests at the mansion. The fact that Danny's many powers had made him a partial celebrity among those who still thought he was a mutant made it a bit worse for the field team leader of the X-Men. Not that the three hadn't visited a few times.

Jean spoke up first. "It was a pleasure meeting all of you! Feel free to stop by for a visit anytime."

Scott, wearing his constant red sunglasses, put forth a hand. "Yeah, it was good having you. And thanks for coming down to visit boring old me while I was bedridden."

Danny shook his hand, followed by Sam and Tucker, each. "No problem. And you weren't boring. You had some decent stories to tell."

The X-man smiled. "Thanks. It's always nice to have a listening ear."

Danny, Sam, and Tucker walked over to the tiny clearing where everyone had gathered around, ready to say their last goodbyes. Danny looked around at everyone, sheepish from all the attention, and rubbed his neck nervously. It was hard to leave. "So... how do we get there?"

Xavier turned to Ororo. "Considering Storm knows the areas from a bird's-eye view best, she'd be the best to ask."

"Thank you, professor." Storm proceeded to give Danny directions that he could follow from the air, as only a flyer could.

After she was finished, everyone started saying their final farewells. Bobby tossed an ice heart at Sam, who stepped aside and allowed it to bounce off the ground instead of catching it. A number of students giggled and snickered. Kitty and several others waved enthusiastically. Everyone else was a bit more reserved, but nobody wanted to see their new friends leave.

As they stepped away from the group, preparing to depart, Danny turned around and added, "Thanks for everything, Professor Xavier!" His sentiment was quickly echoed by Sam and Tucker.

"It was a pleasure having you here." The professor smiled. "I'm sure I speak for us all when I say, 'Good luck.'"

With that, it was time to go. Danny, Sam, and Tucker waved to all their new friends as Danny effortlessly lifted the three of them into the air. They quickly moved through the sky in the direction Storm had indicated, looking for the landmarks that could only be spotted from a bird's-eye view.

It didn't take long to find the park and set down in the middle, a quick bout of invisibility making for a subtle descent. It would be best not to have anyone notice a glowing person flying into the middle of an area they may have to spend some time searching through. For some strange reason, the PDA still wasn't picking up the signal from the anomaly.

As they began walking amongst the trees, the sun started receding behind the distant city. It wouldn't be long until darkness would follow, and then Danny would be the primary source of light in the area. Along with the occasional street lamp, of course, but those didn't penetrate far through the leaves.

After a few minutes of the three of them searching together, Danny huffed. He found himself frowning as he looked up at the darkening sky. "Tucker, is that thing still not reading anything?"

Tucker sighed as he looked at the screen for the third time in as many minutes. "Yep. Or nope. Whichever one means, 'Sorry, we've got nothing.'"

Danny looked around him at the forest, biting his lip. "It's going to take us all night to search like this." Looking at his two friends, he made a decision. "All right, let's split up. We can cover three times the area if we do."

Sam and Tucker looked at each other. "Uh… no offense, Danny…" Tucker started.

Sam finished for him, "But you're kind of the only light in this place. We'll probably be tripping over every tree, rock, and bush if we split up."

Danny blinked. "Don't we have flashlights?"

His friends shrugged. "Just the Fenton Stunner and glow-in-the-dark Fenton Bright Sticks."

Danny frowned, but a moment later asked, "The glow sticks are reusable, right?" At his friends' affirmative nods, he continued, "Okay, then! Sam takes the Stunner, try not to shine it on anyone, and Tucker takes the glow sticks!"

Sam and Tucker didn't look thrilled with the idea, but a few minutes later, the three of them had separated and sought their objective in the midst of a large thicket of trees.

* * *

Sam moved another large branch out of her way as she shone the stunning flashlight over another pile of leaves. She heaved a sigh as she continued onwards. This was not how the goth had expected to spend her last few hours on this world. And this trip had been going so well.

'_Well_,' Sam thought to herself, '_almost._' After all, Danny did completely ignore her when they first got there. She still felt a little sore about that. However, if he hadn't of ignored her, they may not have been able to find the location of the rift they still needed to fix. Not that they've found its exact location yet, but still. The professor was very helpful, and everyone at Xavier's Institute was very understanding. It was nice to have things go their way.

Sam got on her hands and knees and looked under a bush. '_Until now, anyways..._' she couldn't help but think. Why was the PDA malfunctioning, anyway?

As she scooted back a few feet to more easily stand back up, Sam froze at the sound of a crunching noise from behind her. She shot into a crouched position, partially hiding behind the nearest tree. She knew it could've been Tucker, blindly wandering into the area she was supposed to be searching, or even a small animal, like a squirrel or bird. Neither of those options helped quell the nervousness she felt, however, and Sam kept quiet as she listened.

A few moments passed. The teenaged girl took a breath to calm her nerves, then stepped back out from behind the tree.

"Little girls like you shouldn't be out at night."

Sam spun around at the voice behind her, only to feel like a baseball had been batted into her gut. She didn't even have time to take in the image of her captor before she felt her body lifted from the force and flying through the air.

Her landing consisted of two bushes and a tree. She was thrown for a loop for a bit, but then managed to shake it off enough to do a quick mental check of her body. Nothing major was broken, thankfully; the bushes had kept her landing clean. However, as she tried getting up, Sam noticed the punch had cracked a rib or two.

She gasped a sharp, painful breath, then bit her lip as she focused her eyes on her attacker. Sam was again startled, this time by his appearance. What she first thought was a smug smile, she slowly realized looked more predatorily hungry. It fit right in with his clawed hands, hulking form, and dangerously glowing, deadly eyes.

As he slowly stalked towards her, Sam wondered why this creature reminded her of some twisted version Wolverine. Perhaps it was because they had the same hard look, only this guy came with a whole lot of crazy thrown in. Sam felt her throat constrict as she realized that, whoever this mutant was, he had less compunction about killing her right there than Danny's evil future self; and he had been the most crazy she had ever seen. Not anymore.

As the crazy man who reminded her of a cat reached Sam and smiled maliciously down at her, she noticed he was toying with her; his prey. She briefly wondered what he would look like in the full light, if he was just as scary then. That's when it hit her. One last move this "powerless" girl could make.

Sam looked directly up into the monster's eyes, hardening her own as she calmly gripped her only available weapon. As she had hoped, he focused entirely on her face and paid no attention to her hand and the flashlight strapped to her wrist. The Fenton Stunner had been in a position that made it hard to grasp, and Sam knew she wouldn't stand a chance if she made what she was doing obvious.

Just as she got the grip right, the cat man glanced at her hand, showing he had been paying attention all along. However, he obviously thought it was not worthy of his notice as he said, "Whatch'a gonna do? Blind me?" He finished with a quick huff of laughter.

Sam smiled. "Something like that."

She threw her hand up and flipped on the switch as she aimed it at the creep standing less than a foot away. The light activated and a powerful stun ray blasted in the large man's face. He immediately stumbled back and cried out in confusion, closing his palms over his face as he tried to contain the turmoil in his mind.

Sam didn't know why the guy didn't pass out as she kept the light aimed on him, but wasn't going to stick around to find out. She dove through the bushes and ran for Danny and Tucker, not looking back and being sure to make as little noise as possible.

After almost a full minute of running, she stopped herself from entering a clearing where she heard voices.

Peeking through a low-hanging tree branch, Sam stifled a gasp.

* * *

Tucker tried to keep himself from panicking. He was still trying to figure out what exactly happened. One moment, he was talking to Danny after having accidentally wandered into the wrong area, and then next thing he knew, Danny had been knocked unconscious by a surprise attack. Some kind of metal ball came from nowhere and conked the ghost boy out.

As Tucker tried to wake his friend, he found the two of them were surrounded by some big tough guys in weird suits. They were obviously mutants, one guy had metal skin, another could control fire, and a third was hovering above the ground. The fourth had some kind of inverted eye condition, but didn't show any other signs of powers. Until the playing card he was holding glowed menacingly.

The non-powered teen felt himself gulp involuntarily as the floating guy lowered himself to the ground next to Danny. He wore some strange purple and red helmet that matched the rest of his suit, which came with a cape. Tucker quickly got the feeling he was the boss, with how impassively he treated the others while they waited uncaringly.

Purple helmet, as Tucker decided to call him, looked at Danny in interest. After a few moments of studying him silently, the guy turned and gestured towards the sky. Immediately, a strange, metal rectangle showed up and descended to land on the grass next to Danny. It started pushing itself underneath him, like it was going to carry his body. Tucker realized the purple guy had metal powers, and did a quick inventory on himself to check for anything metal.

That's when he remembered that he was the carrier of the PDA, and all the power that he couldn't let this guy use. Tucker tried to calm himself and keep a steady head. There was no use-

A motion off to the side drew his attention. Tucker tried to discreetly watch the bushes on the other side of the clearing, while also watching the large, metal rectangle bend itself around Danny's form, trapping him inside. If Tucker could have done anything to stop these powerful men, he would have.

Another carefully-timed wave caught his attention, and Tucker caught sight of dark purple. Sam's exact shade, to be precise. He bit his lip and waited for the right moment, pulling out the PDA for her to see and no one else. Moving it a bit to catch some moonlight that had recently come out, he aimed for the reflection to hit where he had seen Sam's movements, making absolutely sure she caught the message. Tucker knew he had one chance, one move to make, to save everybody.

"AUGHHHHH!" Tucker screamed at the top of his lungs like he'd seen his first ghost, or was told to clean out the basement. He turned and ran towards the nearest set of bushes, his unexpected outbreak slowing the enemies' reactions. As he dove into the bushes, he really hoped they would believe he had just been frozen in shock until that point. If they decided to thoroughly search the bushes, the PDA would be found and his distraction would have been for nothing.

As he was dragged away by the metal-skinned guy moments later, Tucker kept up the act. He kicked and screamed like he was completely afraid. It didn't hurt that he actually was, of course. All he could think about as the group flew away- carried by the metal-controlling guy, he'd guess- was how much he hoped Sam would find the PDA and rescue their butts.

And how much he hated being the damsel in distress!

* * *

It had taken all night, but a weary Sam finally managed to reach the mansion.

She was welcomed in with worried gazes, everyone wondering about her disheveled state and lack of friends. Despite the panic, it was comforting to find rest among friends after such a long run.

While Sam was still breathing heavily, the professor began questioning her. For the sake of privacy, he brought both of their minds into a mental plane of the mindscape where she could project her thoughts. "What do you remember?"

Sam looked around and saw they were elsewhere, in some kind of foggy blankness. The professor was there, though, so she answered. "A bunch of people attacked us. The whole thing was an ambush. I recognized that card guy, Gambit, and that metal guy, Colossus, from that Danger Room simulation. Other than that, there was a guy in a purple suit with a helmet and cape, some kind of smelly wild guy with claws, and somebody with a flame-thrower strapped to his back with its tubes running down each arm." As she described them, their images from her memories showed up around the two, surprising her.

Xavier nodded. "I see. Magneto has learned about and taken an interest in you three, especially Danny. I don't know how much he knows, but this is fairly drastic for him." He quickly showed her the basic information regarding the group she encountered, then hesitated. "Do you mind if we include the others in on who you are? If we are to retrieve Danny, the lack of information may be detrimental to our success."

Sam sighed, stressed and no longer caring. "Yeah, let's just do it and get it over with."

Professor Xavier nodded and patched all the other members of the household into their conversation. After they all showed up in the strange mental abyss, Sam enlightened the group on who she, Danny, and Tucker really were and where they were from. It was handy having the ability to show them using images from what she remembered.

"So," Bobby started, while they were still in the mindscape, "you're like, ghost hunters turned inter-dimensional rift hunters?"

Kitty grinned. "That's _so_ cool! But why didn't you guys tell us that before?"

"Uh..." Sam tried to think of what to say, then panicked when she saw an image of Batman talking to her come up. It was behind the others, who were facing her, so she quickly waved it back down, not quite knowing the details on how to work her mind while inside it. She probably looked like she was miming something. Luckily, the professor shut down the little get-together in her head. Back in the real world, she simply shrugged before saying, "We didn't know you at first, then decided we didn't want you guys making a big deal out of it later. We only told Professor Xavier."

Kurt frowned. "We wouldn't have made a big deal out of it."

"Hey, guys, check this out!" Everyone turned to see Bobby with a crude, life-sized ice sculpture of Skulker. "It's an inter-dimensional ghost made of metal! Bet Magneto would love to get a hold of him!"

"Mr. Drake," the professor said, calm but displeased, "please do not mention anything you've heard in Miss Manson's mind again, and do not build ice sculptures depicting what you've seen. This is a matter meant to be confidential. We are explaining it to you so you'll be aware of why Magneto has taken an interest in our friends. Somehow, he has learned of exactly what you just so callously exclaimed."

Now very red from embarrassment, Iceman rubbed the back of his neck as he muttered, "Sorry." He backed up as Amara melted the sculpture with her flames. Perhaps those sculpting lessons weren't so useful after all.

Professor Xavier continued, "Please, all of you, understand that these are our guests, just passing through and not wanting any attention. Treat them as you have throughout the week. I am aware you are not ones to judge, but the matter is now about the danger involved in what they do."

Sam gripped her head in frustration. "Yeah, danger that just got Danny nabbed by a psychopath. If we don't find him, who knows what they could do to him? Them. Danny _and_ Tucker. That's what I meant."

The professor smiled. "Danny is the one in a more dangerous situation. Greater concern for him is understandable."

Sam rolled her eyes but blushed.

Forge, a mutant with amazing technological skills who lived elsewhere but frequently visited, spoke up, curious about something. "In your mind, you showed that you could track anything from the inter-dimensional rift with your PDA, right?"

Sam nodded. "Tucker's PDA, but yeah."

"Would 'anything from the inter-dimensional rift' include the three of you?"

After a moment of blinking stupidly, Sam grinned.

* * *

"Danny?" Tucker meekly called in a loud whisper. "Danny, can you hear me?"

After the park, they'd been carried to an abandoned warehouse in some nondescript area. They were each then put in hospital gowns and strapped to stretchers and brought into a large room that looked like a mixture of a makeshift hospital and chemistry lab. A few doctors and scientists were continuously coming in and out of the room, studying Danny - and occasionally Tucker - in excitement.

Sometimes, such as now, the two teens were left alone. Tucker would always use this time to try to escape, though he never managed much success, or try to wake up his friend. His friend who had had anesthetics pumped into him for the entire time.

Tucker sighed and laid his head back down. This was bad. Bad enough that he didn't even focus on the resemblance of a hospital around him, something which would normally make him shiver. He'd heard them call Danny by name, so they obviously knew about the travelers to their world. Which explained the occasional study of himself, too. How did they find out about it? Surely no one at the mansion betrayed them.

Right?

Tucker had to admit to himself that he couldn't know for sure. As much fun as the past week had been, he really didn't know much about the people they lived with. Who just so happened to convince the three that the tear had been in the park, when Tucker's own PDA said otherwise. Who were the only ones that knew their names.

Did that mean no help was coming? Was Sam returning for help, only to run into a trap? Could whoever betrayed them do the same again to her?

Tucker banged his head back against his uncomfortable bed. This was not the thinking he needed to have right now. Getting him and Danny out of there was the only thought that should be going through his mind. Focus on freedom. Freedom and food. A big tasty, Nasty Burger with chili fries and a nice-

What was that?

Tucker stared wide-eyed at the bug that landed on his chest and seemed to stare at him. The _metal_ bug that stared at him. The metal bug with a creepy, metal face that stared at him and reminded him of Vlad. Vlad and his creepy bug spy robot things...

The... thing seemed to assess him and deem him irrelevant. It flew upwards and then over to Danny's side of the room. Tucker's eyes followed it the entire way. After evaluating all the equipment it could find, it landed on Danny and examined him. Tucker gasped as it suddenly seemed to stab him with something, probably a needle, and extract whatever it was after. Probably ectoplasm.

As much as Tucker wanted to shout and get somebody's attention, because that thing did not look like it belonged, Tucker didn't know anything about it. It wouldn't do much good to draw attention from their captors, whom Tucker had a real dislike for. It would likely escape before anyone came to investigate, in any case. And, whatever it was, its secrecy seemed to imply it to be an enemy of the people here.

The "enemy of my enemy" and all, right?

Besides, it could have belonged to a possible rescuer. Might as well leave it be. After all, it's not like the situation could get much worse.

Right?

* * *

Sam felt impressed with the X-Men's setup. Within minutes, the group had changed into their uniforms and were prepping the X-jet for takeoff. As she entered the craft and took a seat, even if it was Bobby who so _gallantly_ offered it, she watched as even Iceman's face was set in a determined expression. Everyone here, regardless of their strange tendencies, was fully professional in light of the danger her friends were in.

It was actually rather calming.

Danny would be safe, as would Tucker. The two were resilient, and it wasn't like the bad guys wanted them dead. According to the professor, anyway, but she felt good about trusting him. He'd proven himself, well enough.

Even if he did let them fall into a trap.

Sam scolded herself for the thought. They shouldn't have fallen for it, themselves. Everyone was to blame for the fiasco, and so it was better to just focus on getting out of the mess instead of playing the blame game.

The other students were atypically quiet, Sam noticed. They seemed to be just as worried as her, which seemed strange. Perhaps it was because they hadn't known Danny that well. He'd overcome far worse situations, and the goth trusted him to do so again.

Sam felt a tiny smile flicker onto her face before she hid it from the others. Even Tucker was pretty decent at getting out of a scrape, if he needed to be. Not that she would ever admit it to the egotistic nerd. Between the two of them, she had no fear that they weren't alive and well.

* * *

Besides, with a battle coming up, she couldn't afford to have any.

"What do you mean you can't find anything wrong?" The voice of the master of magnetism was strained with anger, but aside from that and his narrowed eyes, he seemed the epitome of patience. That would not last much longer. The incompetence of these fools were grating on his nerves.

Unfortunately, he couldn't rely on any mutant scientists for what he needed, so he was forced to work with humans. Luckily, they were more interested in the study of someone from another world than they were uncomfortable working with a powerful mutant. Lucky for them.

"Like we said," the nervous PhD holder started, "we can't find anything to indicate how to locate another universe, even if we had something powerful enough to send us there. The substance that had bonded to the boy in his world has completely altered his DNA, to the point where we don't know if a particular difference is due to being from another universe or being transformed at the molecular structure. If-"

"We captured two of them, did we not? The other boy has broken through universes as well, and he has no such changes."

The scientist bit his lip. This was the part he had been getting to, and he didn't know how the dangerous man in front of him would take it. "Yes. That's true. Unfortunately, he doesn't seem to have any difference in him. At all."

If Magneto's eyes hadn't been narrowed before, they were most certainly now. "Explain."

"Well... it's not like there's nothing wrong with him, or different. It's just... impossible to pinpoint it! There's something there... but then there's not. There's nothing wrong, but at the same time, I know there is!"

Slowly, all the metal in the room started bending, crumpling under an invisible hand. The man who drew the short straw in reporting to Magneto gulped as his nervous sweating increased.

But the master of magnetism made no other signs of impatience. Instead, he spoke again, "What, exactly, _can_ you tell me?"

Taking a deep breath, the possibly doomed man took the plunge. "I think there's something protecting him. It's as if every time we find anything that could provide answers, it's immediately erased. Not just from our equipment, but even in our minds... it's like it evaporates!"

Oddly, Magneto seemed to take the reverse stance of what the scientist considered unusual. Retreating inward, the mutant whispered in deep thought, "Not just your minds, but your equipment as well?"

Before Magneto could send him on his way, to give the magnetic mastermind time to think, the scientist gained enough courage to report the last of the puzzling developments. "There's one more thing, sir."

Magneto's focus moved back to the man in front of him.

"We noticed that when we focused a microscope on some of either boys' blood, or anything of theirs, really, there was something written." He paused, until Magneto made it clear he had no choice but to continue. "Something was written... on the microscope."

Magneto blinked at that.

The man pursed his lips, before continuing. "Something seemed to write itself onto the microscope every time we looked at their DNA, at the same time that our equipment and memories... malfunctioned."

The mutant terrorist raised an eyebrow in question.

The man shifted before stating what sounded like a non-sequitur, "Bad Wolf."

Suddenly, a clap of thunder sounded and the lights went out.

* * *

Ororo had been initially concerned about cutting power to the base with a lightning strike, but she trusted Kurt's judgement that neither Danny nor Tucker were in immediate danger with the move. It was good that he had been able to teleport into the room where the two were being held, with a few stops in between to make sure he didn't end up inside any walls. She would never forgive herself if either boy had been on a life support system of any kind.

While the blue-furred boy would try to help Danny and Tucker out of their restraints, the rest were to provide a distraction by landing the jet in front of the warehouse where they were being held. The lightning, thunder, and power outage would be more than enough to have Magneto running to meet them, as well as his Acolytes and a small army of mind-controlled humans; soldiers, to be precise.

Ororo could think of a few words she wanted to have with the kidnapper. This wasn't usually his style, or so she thought.

Seeing as her role was air support, Storm hovered over the fight scene and watched her friends below. She sent gusts of wind and lightning strikes as needed, but otherwise felt fairly helpless from her position. It was not easy sitting back and watching others rush into danger.

As the fight went on, with Magneto and his Acolytes taking on Xavier's X-Men, Storm sought out Sam's figure below. The girl had great skill, and seemed well-versed in battle, as she used her weapons to harmlessly take the human soldiers out of the fight. Ororo found herself wondering if she should consider that skill a good thing, but she knew the girl would not forgive herself for sitting out of a fight over her friends. For now, her experience in fighting was appreciated.

Storm noticed Colossus standing guard in front of Magneto, ready to leap to his protection as needed. The weather controller felt a smirk cross her face as an idea occurred to her. Linking telepathically with Charles to confirm she would not interfere with a separate attack, Ororo drew upon her link to the storm she had called up. Focusing her will on Colossus, she commanded an electric blast of lightning to curve down and blast across his metal skin.

The electricity surged across him and around his back, blasting Magneto into the wall behind him. He was officially down for the fight. While the mutant mastermind would have normally used his magnetic abilities to channel a lightning attack away from himself, coming from the back of Colossus was hardly something he would have been prepared for.

Just as Storm was not prepared for the surprising smirk on Colossus' face. He had taken Magneto's downfall in stride and continued to stand there, unmoving. It was as if Magneto had been the only reason for him to fight in the first place.

This was something she would have to mention to Charles later.

* * *

As the X-Men advanced, the Acolytes decided that it was nearing time to cut and run. Magneto was down and not even the misdirection of Mastermind, their own telepath, was able to confuse more than a fifth of Xavier's students while still controlling the humans. With a high level of doubt that the captives were even in the building, it was game over.

Sam could feel her heart beating as they got further inside and closer to Danny. And Tucker. The mutant terrorists had only had them for one night, so it's not like they could have done any real damage, right?

Sam's encouragement didn't make her feel better, and she instead found herself becoming more reckless as she ran inside while blasting anyone she didn't recognize. There'd still been no confirmation that Danny and Tucker were safe, just that they wouldn't be put in danger by switching off the power.

Having made it into the building, slightly frustrated for sneaking away from the fight, Sam ran around a corner into a hallway. She stopped dead in her tracks at the sight of someone she recognized.

Sabretooth turned around, then smiled wickedly. "Hello, again, girlie. Come back for seconds?" He held up a hand of very long, _very_ sharp claws.

Sam didn't think he'd give her the chance to pull out the stunner again, so she fell back into her second choice. Running as fast as her legs could carry her.

Ducking back out into the room she'd just left, her brain failed her as she let instinct take over and flew out into the main fight. Unfortunately, while she had put good distance behind herself, she'd lost track of where she was going.

Before the sight of her surroundings could catch up with her brain, something hard slammed her head back before blackness enveloped her.

* * *

Sam moaned as the fog cleared and light filtered in through her eyelids. Sitting up, she noticed that she was lying on a hospital bed in a small room. Although it seemed sterilized, Sam was pretty sure she wasn't in a hospital. Looking around, she saw Dr. McCoy minding some blood tests.

"Are any of those mine?" Sam noticed her voice was a little dry, but she otherwise felt fine. Suddenly remembering why she was out, she touched her forehead and winced. There was quite a goose egg at the hairline.

Hank turned to her and smiled. "No, no, nothing here of yours. You're perfectly healthy, of course; minus the head injury."

Sam nodded, feeling a little weak as she tried to sit further up. "What did I miss?" Eyes widening at a thought, Sam had a moment of panic. "What about Dan-"

"Whoa, easy there!" The blue-furred man crossed the room to her in no time and steadied Sam as she got out of bed. "Danny and Tucker are both fine. I don't know how they're doing psychologically, but the two are as physically fit as ever." With a wink and a whisper, the Beast added, "For however much that is worth."

Sam gave a half-smile, but was too worried to afford the good doctor more than that. "Where are they?"

"I believe the majority of the mansion's residents are either in the kitchen or meeting at Cerebro. Your best bet would be to try the latter of the two."

Sam thanked him and headed out the door of the med center.

Upon reaching the room housing the Cerebro device, Sam saw that about half the students and Danny and Tucker were there, waiting on Professor Xavier. Walking up to Danny, Sam asked about what was going on.

In the time that she'd been out, the professor had contacted a local mutant genius that was an acquaintance of the students. While Danny and heads of the school had a lengthy discussion of where everything went wrong, Tucker and the mutant technological genius, Forge, had re-calibrated the PDA and safely wired it into Cerebro. Now, Professor Xavier sat there using the new setup to search for the rift directly. Danny couldn't recall any more technical info than that.

As for what had been discussed between Danny and the adults, they had narrowed down the separate causes of the unknown chaos that had led to Danny being captured and experimented on. It was most likely Mystique who somehow gained the information that they were not of this world; she had many ways of doing so and had seen Danny in action earlier. In all probability, she'd simply listened in on the conversation shared between the professor and Danny that first day.

Having taken that to Magneto, the leader of mutant terrorism decided that a human who became so powerful was too much a temptation to resist. He searched out the specifications that Charles set out, and then set up the fake sightings. This was all done in an attempt to unlock the secrets of Danny's biology, to either duplicate it or gain information that could lead to travel to another world.

However, that was not the entirety of the problem. The fake sightings only worked because the rift could not be found. As far as the PDA was supposed to work, they should have ended up near the rift. If they did, it was very well-hidden. More likely, there was something at work blocking the area in which it had appeared. Something which redirected the portal the kids came out of to an area already filled with unstable energies: Xavier's mansion.

Before Danny could continue, Professor Xavier set down the Cerebro helmet and turned around to address everyone gathered. Nodding at Sam, he first welcomed her. "Miss Manson, I'm glad you were able to join us. As I am sure Danny was just telling you, it appeared that someone powerful is hiding any traces that your anomaly exists. For that reason, I feared that the rift you're looking for is in dangerous hands. That fear was... well-founded."

Sam tensed up, and noticed Danny do the same. Of course it wouldn't be so easy; they had only gone through kidnapping and experimentation, after all.

Danny was the one to ask, "So, you found it? Where?"

The professor sighed and rubbed his temples. Wherever it was, Sam could tell it would not be good. "Latveria."

Although the name didn't mean anything to Sam and a few others, including Danny and Tucker, there was a general murmuring that started up that didn't put her at ease.

Sam frowned. "So... what does this mean?"

Instead of answering her, Professor Xavier looked past the group and asked, "Yes, Logan?" Sam, along with everyone else, turned in surprise to the entrance of the room.

Wolverine was frowning as he motioned for someone on the other side to enter with him. He was obviously uneasy with whoever he had been leading. "We've got a visitor, Chuck. And you're not gonna believe who it is."

A woman walked slowly past the clawed mutant, calmly settling into a peaceful stance a few feet into the room. Sam quickly realized the woman was blind, as she wore large sunglasses and held a white cane out in front of her. Though, she did seem to be staring right at Professor Xavier. "Hello, Charles."

With a simple nod of his head, the professor replied, "Irene."

With a small smirk, the blind woman corrected him. "Please, Charles, call me Destiny." At his hesitantly understanding nod, she continued, her voice falling into an ominous overtone. "But formalities aside, we have a problem. Something which threatens us all." Turning to look at Danny, which was really strange for someone purportedly blind, she spoke with a powerful and knowing edge to her voice. "And it concerns _you_ most of all."

Surprised, Danny pointed at himself. "Me?"

Destiny nodded. "What I have come to give you is a warning. In Latveria, a trap awaits you. Victor von Doom, the tyrant in rule of the country, is prepared for you. He wishes to use the power of the space/time rupture to aid in his attempts at conquest. If you were to leave now in an attempt to close the rift, even with the aid of the X-Men, he would conquer you and all hope would be lost."

Kitty raised her hand, slightly nervous, and spoke, "Why do you care? Aren't you, like, one of the bad guys?"

Destiny's large, black sunglasses were directed at the phasing mutant. "I care, child, because I have seen what happens if Doom continues his tests on the outer ridges of the tear. Trust me when I tell you, the destruction that came to me within my vision is a disaster like no other. It will rip apart the world into fire and ashes, before plunging whatever's left into utter darkness."

Tucker gave a low whistle and whispered to Danny. "I got to hand it to her, she knows how to dramatize!"

Though the boy had spoken quietly, Destiny twisted her head towards him. "This is no dramatization! The end of the world _is_ nigh, unless you recruit the only ones who can stop the Latverian dictator."

Eyes wide at having been heard, Tucker quickly blinked a couple of times before managing to get out, "Who would that be?"

Destiny focused her gaze on Danny. "In the city, there is a structure called the Baxter Building. There, you will find four heroes that are said to be 'Fantastic.' They have experience fighting Doom and his armies and will guide you through his encampment surrounding the rift."

Sam finally weighed in on the conversation, not much caring for the idea of involving even more people. "While I'm sure these fantastic guys are trustworthy-"

Bobby leaned over to her shoulder and quietly said, "One of them's a girl."

Sam rolled her eyes and gritted her teeth for a moment, before continuing. "_We are_ pretty capable, ourselves! I mean, if you all can fly us in your jet until we're over the rift, Danny can fly us the rest of the way down. We'll phase through any attacks or barriers, Tucker can fix the tear in a matter of moments, and then we're on our way! What plan could be better?"

Destiny's eyes flashed as she shot down the girl's plan. "Have you heard nothing I've said? He is prepared for you." Turning, the clairvoyant mutant pointed at Danny. "For him! Do you think Magneto was the only one experimenting on the boy's DNA?"

At everyone's shocked looks of confusion, Destiny regarded Charles. "Xavier's queries after you informed him of your mission were traced back to him. Doom is no fool; he kept a close eye out for any clues regarding the rift found in his kingdom. While Xavier hunted for information, he himself was being hunted. And once Doom's glance fell on him, all mutants were put under his microscope."

"He knew of Magneto's plans to kidnap a boy from another world even before it was put into action. As the master of magnetism studied the hybrid, he was unaware of Doom's successful extraction of the ghost DNA. By now, the technological genius of Doom has allowed him to create a rough but efficient ghost shield."

Destiny waited a moment for that to process in the minds of her audience. "Had you gone in like you'd planned, your friend's phasing ability would have been interrupted. Had you survived the long fall, all three of you would suffer experiments by Doom's hand that rival anything Magneto would try. He has far greater resources at his command. This is why I have come to warn you."

Feeling sufficiently chastised, Sam pushed back the urge to tell Danny she had been right in telling him not to tell the X-Men anything. This could have all been avoided if they'd given as little information as possible. Now, though, any hope of that was lost. With this news, it had become all or nothing.

Feeling thankful for avoiding another screwup ahead of time, Sam looked back at Destiny and nodded. "Then I guess we should get whatever help we can find."

Bobby shot a fist up into the air in excitement. "Woohoo! I finally get to meet the Invisible Woman!"

Kurt grinned. "Ja, man. I've always wanted to meet the Thing. Ben Grimm rules!"

The Beast rubbed his chin. "I personally would love a visit to the lab of Reed Richards. I met the man once at a lecture on biodiversity sciences. He has a truly gifted mind."

Tabitha smirked in thought. "Sounds like fun. I hear Johnny Storm knows how to show a girl a good time. Yummm." She looked at Danny and winked, laughing when he blushed and Sam narrowed her eyes at the explosive mutant.

* * *

As the kids continued chattering excitedly amongst themselves, Wolverine leaned over to the professor and grunted. "I'm starting to get a bad feeling about this, Chuck. The Fantastic Four are a bit too... public for my comfort."

Professor Xavier held a very serious look on his face. "Regardless, we may need all the help we can get. Latveria is a dangerous land, thanks to Victor's enforcement over the entire region. If the Avengers weren't currently on a mission in deep space, I would consider calling on them for assistance. As it is, there are only a few individual options available."

Logan raised an eyebrow. "Such as?"

Charles pulled a newspaper from the side of his chair and handed it to Logan as he said, "Sometimes, the best help comes in small packages."

Wolverine opened the paper, a Daily Bugle special from several months ago.

"Spider-man: Hero or Menace." Looking in doubt at the professor, Logan had to ask, "You serious, Chuck?"

"Yes." Xavier leaned forward and steepled his fingers, regretting the decision he was about to make. "And... one other. Someone I had the misfortune of meeting once." Charles grimaced at the memory. "However, I feel that a full-on assault against Latveria may require a wild card that he would provide."

A frown pulled at Wolverine's face as he considered the possibilities.

Xavier turned to him and stated in a serious tone, "So long as he doesn't make things worse."

* * *

_Next Time..._

"It's clobberin' time!"

"Just your friendly neighborhood threat detect- LEFT!"

"Do you think a mere child could match wits with DOOM!"

"Who could possibly be crazy enough to do that?_"_

"_Hey, fanfic readers! Who's your favorite psychopaaaaath?"_

* * *

**Author's Rant:**

I'd just like to mention how much I _hate_ this chapter. It has been the bane of my existence for the past year and a half. It's always been on my mind, and was so very slow going for all that time. I worked on various parts throughout the last two years, completely out of order, and even took out or replaced complete portions from my original outline. I had wanted a big focus to be on their week with the X-Men, but I instead skipped right over it! And I have grown as a writer through other means since I first started this story, which makes it feel like the whole thing is a giant patchwork mess from earlier days of writing to more recent ones. Not that I'm particularly great, but I believe I am better than I was when I last left you all hanging. In any case, I truly hope you all enjoy this and that it doesn't look like the giant, hulking monster it does to me.

_And now, back to our regularly scheduled waiting..._


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